


A Thousand Eyes

by TigsMacGee



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Minor Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow To Update, but with HORSES, graphic depictions of social awkwardness, heavily inspired by bloodborne, strap in folks this is gonna be LONG, tags will be updated as we go but please let me know if you want one added, the bees aren't in here yet but they will be
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:21:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 23,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28019940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigsMacGee/pseuds/TigsMacGee
Summary: A call for aide from a pair of mountain towns has the Beacon Hunter's Guild sending out a pair of hunters to investigate; The Rose to one, and the Dragon to another.On her way to look into one mystery, Ruby encounters another in the form of a beautiful young woman, traveling alone in the woods. Brought together by misfortune, it's hard to tell which mystery is more dangerous.
Relationships: Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee
Comments: 32
Kudos: 87





	1. A Grimm Reminder

**Author's Note:**

> Shout out to @ddullahan for convincing me to post something finally!
> 
> I would love some feedback for this, but its my first time posting so be gentle am baby

The sounds of distant combat echoed through the trees, shots ringing out in predictable patterns, punctuated by deep snarls and roars so low that they made some of the branches around her vibrate and hum with the aftershocks. 

Until they didn’t.

The gun, some kind of small caliber by the sounds of it, had gone silent. The roars had stopped, but the growls continued.

That wasn’t good. Ruby put her heels to Crescent, driving the big black stallion to move more swiftly through the thick of the forest, happy that the underbrush was thin under the heavy canopy of the boreal forest. Her second horse, a fine boned blood bay named Rosie, calmly kept pace behind them.

This wouldn’t be much of a rescue if she let the person she was coming to save die. Not that she knew who it was, but ultimately it didn’t matter. A life was worth saving.

Crescent’s hooves pounded at the bare earth toward the source of the growls. If whoever it was that was being hunted was smart, they would have most likely headed toward the clearing that was up ahead. If they knew it was there anyway. If they, like herself, weren’t from here then they might not know about it.

Up in front of her, a good distance away still, the path visibly forked, and a large pale object laying still in the middle of the road, a massive pool in the shadows around it. The light of the broken moon was almost no help to anyone through the thick shadows, night’s smooth blanket. But that mattered little to her anyway. With her special eyes and years of training, only a Faunus could see better in the dark than her. And she didn’t need her eyes to smell the blood.

She reached back to her saddle-holster slung down next to her leg within easy reach and pulled up her rifle, readying it as she directed Crescent around the large pale form with her knees. She glanced over at the shape as she loaded several rounds into the tubular magazine under her rifle barrel. As she had already suspected, the figure was a horse. Probably a beautiful one in life, given the way the coat still gleamed in the poor light and despite being as marred as it was in death. It had been torn from belly to hocks, laying the back half of the beast open to the night air, now food for the wild beasts of the forest. It was a calculated strike, one designed to cripple the animal and drop it quickly to chase the rider on the ground, though given the number of packs on the animal it was unlikely that it had a rider. It was probably acting more as an alternate mount. Good. That meant that she was likely only dealing with Grimm this night, and not human attackers.

She redirected her attention to the path ahead of her, wrapping the reins firmly around a special hook on her saddle and trusting to her skill that Crescent would behave himself. He had never given her reason to doubt him before, but she was still never really comfortable holding reins in her teeth. It ruined the aesthetic of her bandana mask.

They took the fork toward the clearing and broke through almost immediately, brush and shrubs crushed beneath heavy hooves and sent flying with the force of their approach. The scene awaiting her crystallized in her mind in an instant as she lined up her first shot.

Six living Beowolves circled a woman in a white dress on another pale white horse. Several other Beowolves, about seven or so, lay dead in the grass and scrub, slowly dissolving into black mists and dispersing on the wind. Crescent’s ears pinned back on his neck and he screamed a stallion’s war-cry, high and filled with rage that Rosie echoed even though she wasn’t as built for war. Ruby grinned under her mask, feeling it match the snarling grin of the wolf’s smile inked into her bandana as the excitement of fighting for her life filled her veins.

The rage-filled scream of her horses drew the attention of the Beowolves and the woman alike, though Ruby paid her no mind other than to keep note of where she was in relation to the line of her shots. She took a deep breath to settle herself and gently squeezed her rifle's trigger.

It barked harshly, its voice like a clap of thunder in her ear as the kick settled into her shoulder in a familiar fashion. She knew the voice of her rifle as well she knew her own sister.

A Beowolf’s head disappeared in a gory spray of black blood, the spatter of its brains standing in stark relief against its mask in the light of the moon. Ruby’s hidden grin never wavered as she lined up her second shot, her trigger hand already coming down in the lever to ready the next bullet.

The monsters howled and roared as the body hit the dirt, charging her in their drive to destroy and completely forgetting their original target, which suited her just fine. The monstrous bipedal wolves spun and charged, closing the distance to her with mighty leaps and bounds. Her second target’s head evaporated in a shower of gore just as the first wolf came within slashing distance with its claws.

Ruby ducked the blow, bending backward over her horse’s hindquarters and swinging down toward the packed earth as she spun her rifle with a single hand, using the momentum to cock the lever and chamber a new round. She flexed her abdomen and snapped back into her place in the saddle, sighting and firing in a single breath. Crescent raced away from the woman on her pale horse at Ruby’s direction, racing around the Beowolves and forcing the slower creatures to trail behind them in chase.

Ruby swung her legs around in her saddle, flipping herself backwards on her horse and taking careful aim at the monster wolf that was getting just a bit too close to her Rosie’s hindquarters. Of her two horses Rosie was by far the fastest, but the way they were trained had her calmly staying with her herd despite the telling angle of her ears. 

Given the opportunity, both of her horses would stop at nothing to render any creature of Grimm into paste. That was why she had chosen them.

Another creature’s head vanished in a messy spray with a bark of thunder, its blackness painting a majestic tableau against the backdrop of the broken moon. She cranked the lever again, chambering the next round.

Two of the remaining three broke off from their pursuit, one breaking to the side in an attempt to go after the woman in white that they had until now forgotten about, while the other attempted to flank her. She responded in kind, a small smirk on her face that was invisible under her mask, as she veered Crescent directly at the attempted flanker. Firing her shot at the remaining pursuer resulted in the loss of another head. Crescent reared up behind her and brought his fore-hooves down with all the weight of the vexed stallion that he was. His metal and dust shod hooves ignited with small bursts of flame as he did his darndest to utterly annihilate the offending monstrosity.

A small creature of Grimm was no match for her horse, and the creature's head caved dramatically with an explosive crack almost without Crescent breaking stride. Ruby swung herself back around in her saddle, cocking her gun as she went. She kicked Crescent into a sprint as she aimed, but from here the angle was wrong for a clean shot without possibly hitting the woman. She would have to be fast then. The woman was fumbling at her hip for some kind of… something as she attempted to hold her horse steady, but Ruby paid it no mind as she leaned forward onto her charger’s neck, angling him around slightly to get off the angle she needed.

It appeared for a split second and she felt time nearly freeze around her, the Beowolf slowing and everything coming into an almost surreal level of clarity. Her rifle came up, the woman’s hand came out of her pouch holding some kind of vial. Ruby sucked in a breath and gently squeezed the trigger, already knowing where the bullet would go before it left her gun.

The Beowolf’s head vanished just as its fellows had before it, and Ruby slowed her mount to a more comfortable speed, eventually coming to a dramatically sudden stop over top her final kill, less than ten feet from the woman. Ruby examined her from under the safety of her worn and tattered hat. The woman clearly came from money, the quality of the fabrics she wore made that clear enough even with the distance, though the colour would have given her away regardless. White was an incredibly expensive colour to have anything in and entirely impractical to keep clean on the road. And on the road she clearly was, given the wear on her short traveling cloak. Though it was as clean as she could probably get it, it still showed clear signs of use, from the splatter of mud across it to the faint stains and fraying she could see near the hem.

The woman shifted, swallowing thickly, and Ruby blinked. She was being rude! Yang would smack her in the back of the head if she was here and honestly, she would deserve it.

Ruby cleared her throat.

“So. Nice night, huh?” She wanted to smack herself. Who opens a conversation with that after a Grimm attack?! Oh, she wished Yang were here…

“I- I beg your pardon?” The woman sounded caught off-guard for some reason, almost annoyed at how mundane Ruby’s question had been. The woman pushed back the hood of her cloak and the moonlight caught in her hair, making it glisten and shine like freshly worked silver. Her eyes glittered like the sapphires worn in the crowns of kings. 

Ruby felt her tongue swell in the back of her throat, stealing her ability to breathe.

Ooooh no. Oh she really needed Yang’s help. Yang knew how to talk to beautiful ladies. Every time she tried to talk to ladies she turned into a stuttering mess and said the worst things.

“U-um. The- The moon’s really beautiful, you know? Makes the blood and the Grimm easier to see.” Like that. She wanted to slap a hand over her eyes and hide her shame, but she knew that wouldn’t make this better. The woman’s face twisted in open confusion and concern.

“Did you hit your head? When you bent down on your horse?” The woman lifted a hand and tapped at her own temple, indicating that she thought Ruby was concussed.

Ruby deflated slightly. “No. No, I’m fine.” She straightened back up, alarm coursing through her. “Wait, are you okay? The bullets stopped before I made it here.”

“I’m… Alive.” The woman winced, shifting the leg that was hidden behind her horse. “They only managed to graze me when I ran out of bullets.” She lifted her beautifully crafted six-shot revolver up and inspected it, absently flicking the chamber out in a clearly practiced motion. Ruby would have spared more than the passing glance she gave it but she had other priorities at the moment.

“Show me.” Ruby spun around on Crescent’s back, swinging a leg over his great black neck and dropping to the ground without a sound other than the faint jingle of her tack.

“W-what?” The woman shifted uncomfortably in her saddle, trying to angle her horse to keep Ruby away from what she was certain would be a more serious injury than the woman would have her to believe. Ruby’s hand shot forward and snagged in the white horse’s bridal, and she idly noted its quality. Despite being dressed in such impractical clothing, the woman clearly had an eye for function over form. Ruby dragged the horse’s muzzle back into line.

“Stop moving.” She growled, not sure if she was directing it at the woman or the horse at this point. 

The woman stiffened as Ruby came around her injured side. Ruby had been right to be concerned. The woman had a clear gash across her thigh, three claws having clearly been aimed with purpose as they were almost artfully centered, their diagonal nature telling of the chase endured. Ruby felt a snarl twist her upper lip and she was grateful that the woman couldn’t see it, especially given her response to Ruby showing any sort of agitation with her was apparently frozen compliance.

That was worrying for some reason, but Ruby filed it away into the back of her brain, for morning Ruby to deal with.

She swiftly pulled her boot-knife and slit the woman’s red stained skirt from hem to hip, holding her leg down as she tried to move away.

“E-excuse you! I don’t even know your name and you think you can just-!”

“Ruby.” She cut the woman off, reaching back to one of her many pouches for a clean rag.

“What?” The woman stilled.

“My name. It’s Ruby.” Ruby whipped out the cloth and used it to gently pull the gashes, inspecting the damage as they continued to bleed. “How long ago was this?” The wound didn’t look old, but it was clearly older than the lack of her bullets would suggest. Not a good sign.

“… About two hours. Maybe more.” The woman shifted uncomfortable and looked away from her when Ruby looked into her eyes. “I wasn’t exactly able to keep track of time when I was fighting for my life.”

Definitely not good. Ruby went to Rosie, who was waiting with a foot cocked into the air, with the aura of a horse an inch from sleep.

“Silly girl.” Ruby murmured to her as she gave her neck a cursory rub before going for her medicine pouch. She pulled it from her saddle along with one of her canteens of clean water and returned to the woman’s side. She pulled a vial from her medicine pouch and handed it to the woman, who eyed both it and her with a dubious look in her eye.

“Drink that.” Ruby dumped some water on a clean cloth and went to work cleaning the blood from her gashes, using the hand that was not holding the cloth to hold the wounds open for better inspection.

“Absolutely not.” The woman lifted her nose into the air, stubbornness in every line of her body.

Ruby looked up at her, holding her in place with her eyes. “Drink. It. Unless you want a hardy dose of Grim Fever.” The woman looked at the vial, then looked at her leg. Finally, after Ruby went back to cleaning and inspecting her wound, she heard the cork pop and the woman swallow the thick liquid substance down.

“Some people are naturally immune to the corruption that the creatures of Grimm carry.” Ruby spoke into the woman’s wound. She had lost the ability to look her in the eye for now after their staring match. “Whether it’s through their bloodline or from intense training, the corruption cannot touch them. The rest are not so lucky. If the Grim don’t kill them outright, the fever will kill them in time. Boiling them from the inside out until nothing is left but a husk filled with madness before death finally releases them.” 

She reached back into her medical bag and pulled out a wooden jar of salve and a roll of clean bandages. She glanced up at the woman, finding her looking uncomfortable. She focused back on her task, carefully smearing the salve in the wound and making the woman hiss in pain before she pressed an absorbent pad into it and began to wrap the leg as gently as she could.

“Sorry.” Ruby cleared her throat, glancing up again in time to catch the woman’s eyes before looking away again. “I’m not really great at making conversation. I usually leave it to my Hunting Partner most of the time, but we split for different jobs.” Ruby snorted dryly. “She’s worlds better with people than I am.”

“What do you do?” The woman looked down at her quickly before looking away.

“Hmm?” Ruby absently stitched the bandage closed before packing her supplies away and slinging the bag over her shoulder.

“Your job. What is it?” The woman’s sapphire blue eyes twinkled in the moonlight as she looked at her curiously. Ruby cocked her head to the side and eyed her back, equally curious.

“I’m a Hunter.” She shrugged, turning back to Rosie who had come up to lip at her hip in affection. She patted her loyal mare’s neck and stowed her pack away in the place it came from, taking the time to tie it down hard enough to keep the noise to a minimum. The forest sounds had yet to return to normal and she didn’t trust the night to keep her hidden next to a woman and horse that practically glowed in the dark.

“Oh. Well what are you doing out so late at night? Aren’t the game animals all asleep?” The woman looked disbelievingly at her, as if she was asking an obvious question to trap her in the wrong. Ruby felt her brow furrow in confusion.

“Night is as good a time as any other- wait. Oh. Oh!” She waved a hand in front of her face, the other going to her back and habitually checking the location of her weapons. Making sure her long curved blade hadn’t come loose from its housing down her leg. “No, no. I don’t hunt animals. I’m a Hunter. I kill the creatures of Grimm.”

The woman reared back as though she had been slapped, her horse sensing her sudden tension and responding in kind, looking ready to sprint for the trees at a moment's notice.

“Something wrong, Princess?” Ruby hopped back into Crescent’s saddle, pulling her trusty rifle from its holster and slotting more bullets into the loading port with her thumb. She still had a destination to reach, and it was better to be prepared.

“A Hunter. A real Hunter.” The woman pulled the slit remains of her skirt over her leg, covering it from the night air, the look on her face conflicted and confused. “I thought they were a myth.”

“Oh. No, we’re very real. There’s just not that many of us. Say,” Ruby leaned forward and squinted at the woman as she abruptly changed the subject. “Where ya headed?”

The woman blinked at her before leaning back in her saddle, her horse pawing at the ground. “Why do you want to know?”

Ruby tucked her hand inside her coat, running her fingers up and down the hilt of her blade in thought. Pieces of an idea were falling into place in her mind.

“Well, as nice of a night as it is, it’s still rather unusual for me to run into another traveler once the sun sets. We’re not more than a handful of hours from the nearest town though. If you’re headed that way, I would be happy to go with you?” Ruby shifted awkwardly in her saddle, Crescent twisting his great head around to nibble at her toe for her nervous shifting on his back. She leaned forward and patted his neck. “If you don’t mind that is. I’m heading to the town myself.”

The woman shifted, her horse changing its weight as she moved while visibly appearing to debate with herself.

“I am going to visit my sister.” The woman looked at her warily, her fingers hovering over the butt of her empty gun. “I would be… happy to accompany you to the nearest town, however. It is far later than I was intending to be out.”

“Great!” Ruby untangled Crescent’s reins and pulled them up, slinging her rifle across her shoulders with her arm at a casual angle. “The other end of the road should come out… right… around here.” She led him forward, circling toward the nearest edge of the clearing, scanning the darkness for glowing eyes and the entrance to the road. “Oh! There it is.” She started toward the break in the trees, hearing two separate sets of hooves follow behind her.

“So.” Ruby started as the darkness of the trees overtook them. She was intentionally trying to give the woman something to follow, not knowing how good her eyes were in the dark. “I assume the other white horse I passed back there was one of yours?”

“I… Yes. Solitas. She was Myrtle’s dam.” The woman sounded upset, and Ruby couldn’t blame her. Her horses were like family to her. If something killed them… The sound of a hand patting horseflesh sounded quietly in the darkness, indicating the horse the woman was riding. “A gift from my sister some years ago.”

Ruby cleared her throat. “I’m sorry for your loss.” She responded quietly. “Was she… carrying anything important? I don’t mean to diminish your pain or brush it aside but… she’s behind us now and… Well it’s not a good idea to go back for her.” That and she wouldn’t want the woman to have to see her in the state she was in… not that it would be improving.

The woman sighed. “Yes. She was carrying my supplies.”

“I will go back for them at first opportunity.” Ruby leaned back in her saddle, glancing over her shoulder at the pale woman who did in fact almost glow in the dark. She was already injured, so it would be best if they could make it to the town unaccosted. And before the fever started. That was important to remember. “Let’s pick up the pace for now, hmm? Let me know if your leg starts bothering you.”

She pressed her heels to Crescent’s mighty sides and clicked to him, starting him off with what was basically a fast jog that could be sustained for a longer period of time then a run. She smiled up at the moon as it peeked through the canopy of the trees and let a happy Hunting song flow from her lips. The woman behind her made a surprised noise but otherwise didn’t say anything as their horses sped through the trees.

When one song ended another began, in the way that was tradition for Hunters as they traveled. Happy and sometimes funny songs to keep the Grimm at bay, sad and melancholy songs to draw them near, and songs of battle and war to get the blood pounding for the Hunt. She and her sister had a large variety of Hunting songs, and every time they stopped somewhere with new songs they made sure to take some with them for the road.

She kept an eye to the trees the entire time, her ear peeled for the sounds of something that shouldn’t be, and though the night sounds of the forest never resumed they made it to the tall wall of the town. The wall itself was rough, made of entire trees stood on their sawn end and locked together in a technique that came from far off in the mountains. A gate stood closed ahead of them in line with the road and manned by two young men well illuminated by torches and armed with shoddy spears that hurt Ruby just to look at. She would have to have a chat with the town blacksmith if she stayed long enough.

“Uh- Um- Halt! Who’re you a-an’ what do you’s want?!” One of the young men lowered his spear, the other lowering his shortly after. Ruby stopped her singing and cocked her head to the side watching the tips of their spears tremble with nerves.

“You boys seem like you’ve had a bad night. Anything interesting happen?” Ruby asked, careful not to move her rifle to try and draw less attention to it. It didn’t work as the man who had asked her the question glanced at it and swallowed hard.

“Answer the question!” The other barked, taking a step forward and into stabbing range. He was also in range of her horse, though she shifted the reins in her hand to keep the mildly ornery stallion from lunging and giving him a bite.

Ruby glanced between the two gatekeepers and felt the need to sigh. What she wouldn’t give to have her sister’s way with people. “Someone in your village sent for a Hunter. Here I am.” She spread her arms out taking the opportunity to holster her rifle. If the guards decided to try and kill her she would rather use something a little better for close range anyway. Like her blade.

“A Hunter.” The one that spoke first said with awe, lifting his spear and leaning on it, clearly tired.

“Wait. How’s we supposed to know you’s a real Hunter?”

“How many people do you know who will travel so boldly at night?” The woman spoke dryly behind her and Ruby glanced over her shoulder at her. The torches illuminated her strangely, making her hair seem white rather than blonde like her sister’s, though it did show even more than in the moon just how beautiful she was, especially with the way the shadows gave her what looked like a mysterious scar over her eye. Even though it was just an illusion, it was still alluring. She had always had a weakness for elegant women with scars. She bit her lip under her mask and forced herself to look back at the armed men.

The first man flinched as if the pale woman had smacked him. He stood up straighter and stared at her with wide eyes. The second flicked his wavering spear point in her direction and Ruby made Crescent sidestep to block his path.

“None of that now. You’re talking to me.” Ruby intentionally darkened her tone, hopefully not enough to scare the man but enough to make him pay attention.

“Hey! What’s goin’ on out t’ere?” A different man’s voice called through the gate.

“Say’s she a Hunter!” Called the first man, his eyes nervously flicking between the woman and Ruby.

“Ask to see her emblem!” A fourth voice called through the gate. Ruby felt her eyebrow lift. This new man had a different accent and seemed like he knew more about Hunters than most.

Wordlessly Ruby pulled back a lapel on her duster, fully exposing the silver rose pinned there. The two men on this side of the gate squinted at it.

“… ‘S some kinda flower?” The first man called back.

“What kind of flower? Is it a rose?” The different accented voice called back, excitement in his tone. Something about his accent was familiar…

“Maybe? Got lotsa petal lookin’ lines and stuff coming up the top.”

“By the Gods, it’s the Rose! Open the gate!”

“Wait! What ‘bout t’ otter one?” The second man chimed again. Ruby felt a pinch in her head as a headache started to form. She would rather get to the inn as quickly as possible to check the woman’s wounds, but she could understand the need for caution. It was the only reason she hadn’t given in to the impulse to thump him with the butt of her gun. The gate started to squeak open from the other side, regardless of the second man’s protests.

“She’s with me.” Ruby stated coldly, meeting the man’s gaze in a way that left no room for argument, though the man did still try, his mouth flapping open and closed as she heeled her horse into motion through the gate. Once through she took in the small crowd that had gathered around the gate, men in a wide variety of ages from somewhere near her own to men who were no doubt fathers with children half her age. 

She spotted one man in the crowd who wasn’t dressed in the rough spun mountain tunics and bound up pants of the lowlands. Instead he was dressed in more of a fashion from the interior Sanus coast, wearing colours that seemed familiar, and there was something about his face... She squinted at him from under her hat.

“Mountain Glenn.” She snapped her fingers. “You were an apprentice of some kind.”

“Y-yes Ma’am!” The man stepped forward so she could see him clearer. He bowed sharply at the waist in the fashion from Mistral that had become popular. “I was an apprentice Innkeeper. I am honored that you remember me.”

“Are you still an Innkeeper?” Ruby cocked her head to the side, the light shining under her hat to fall across her eyes. The elegant woman behind her made a small noise of surprise that Ruby paid little attention to, her attention locked mostly on the crowd of men. “Because my companion and I will be requiring a room, should one be available”

“Two, if at all possible.” The woman interjected with her own preference. Ruby shrugged. One was cheaper on the Innkeeper, but if the woman would be more comfortable on her own then so be it.

The man from Mountain Glenn cleared his throat, his hands rubbing together anxiously.

“There is a room available to you and your companion, good Hunter. But I am afraid it really is only the one. The others are taken by a fur merchant and his party. However, it is one of my best rooms! Has a tub for bathing and a small hearth for the boiling of water. I can even provide a meal for you both. Free of any charge, especially for the Hunter who saved my home village from the Grimm.” He bowed again from the waist and swept his arms in the direction of the largest building Ruby could see, clearly in view from the main road through town.

The woman made a disgruntled noise that Ruby covered. “That would be more than fine. Please, lead the way.”

———

Ruby sighed, slinging her packs from her shoulders to the floor, pushing them out of the way with her foot so she had more room to help the limping woman through the door.

“I’m not infirm! I’m fully capable of walking on my own!” the woman sniped at her, but made no effort to pull away from the arm supporting her arm around the waist.

“I mean, technically you are injured, so that would actually make you infirm to some degree.” Ruby stifled a laugh before it could properly escape, but the woman must have heard something in her voice anyway, huffing aggressively and looking away from her.

“Here. Why don’t you lay down while I take a look at your leg again.” Ruby walked her over to the bed, grateful that the Innkeeper had sent word ahead to his apprentice to have the lamps lit and a hogshead of water set to boil in the hearth as she had requested. 

She put a hand on the woman’s shoulder and pressed lightly, but the woman resisted and Ruby let it go, choosing instead to tuck one of the sausage shaped pillows common to this region behind the woman’s back. Without further waiting she flipped back the cut edges of the woman’s skirt, exposing the quick bandaging she had done on the road. The woman squeaked, slamming her hands down to keep the skirt from flipping too far across her legs.

“Excuse you! Is it too difficult for you to ask before you touch me?” The woman demanded hotly, an icy glare on her face. Ruby blinked up at her, startled by the reprimand.

Oh. She should have thought about that. Yang had never bothered to say anything so it had never occurred to her that it might bother people.

“Sorry. Wasn’t thinking. I’ll try better next time.” Ruby apologized, one hand already going down for her boot knife to open the stitches that closed the bandage. The woman huffed and rolled her eyes. Ruby squinted in the dim yellow lighting. 

“Oh. It is a scar.” Her hand came up and brushed the woman’s bangs aside so she could see better. 

The scar was clean, a nearly perfectly straight line from her forehead through her brow and down across her cheekbone to her cheek. Somehow whatever blade or sharp edge had done the damage had miraculously skipped her eye and avoided blinding her. That would have been an absolute shame. Ruby had never seen eyes of such a clear blue before outside of… maybe ice. But they were darker than the ice she had seen in the mountains. More like the sapphires she had seen rich ladies sometimes wear when they wanted to impress people. Her eyes were so beautiful…

The woman flinched and pulled back.

“What did you just say about asking?!”

Ruby snatched her hand back like she had been burned. One look at some pretty eyes and a nice scar and she was already back to her regular idiocy.

“Sorry! Sorry! I forgot.” She cleared her throat and looked down at the bandage, slicing the stitches with a quick stroke of her short knife. She carefully started to unwind the binding, checking each layer for any seeping as she went.

“How have you forgotten?! You just said it!” The woman started to lift her leg slightly to make Ruby’s task easier, but Ruby put her hand on her knee and gently pushed her leg back down to the bed.

“I don’t always have the best control when I see something interesting.” Ruby cleared her throat awkwardly.

“Are you sure you’re a real Hunter?” The woman asked dubiously. Ruby snorted. She lifted the large pad of gauze she had pressed into the wound, inspecting the damage to the leg underneath. Three seeping bloody gouges met her eyes, the edges where skin had been rent by claws were tattered and frayed.

“You didn’t seem to be so uncertain at the gate.” Ruby grinned under her mask as she attempted to distract the woman with conversation. 

This was going to hurt a bit if she was going to try and fix the damage done to the best of her abilities. She rose from the chair she had pulled over from the room's single table and pulled off her duster, throwing it across the room into the opposite corner and pulling a bare metal knife from a hidden sheath at the small of her back as she went. She stuck the flat metal handle in her teeth under her mask and used her hand to pull her medical bag from her packs, still sitting by the door.

“We needed to get in and I didn’t want to make it harder than it needed to be. But you certainly don’t act like any of the Hunters that I’ve heard about.” Ruby glanced at the woman as she laid her medical kit flat on the table, fully unrolling it as she went and going through her tools looking for… there it was. Her curved stitching needle. The woman stayed where she had been left, still sitting upright on the bed. Ruby snatched a hook from next to the hearth and checked the water boiling in the small pot before taking the knife from her teeth and throwing it and the needle into the boiling water.

“If you’re looking for a morose Hunter, you’ll have to talk to my uncle. Most of us tend to be the happy and loud sort. Makes the job easier.” Ruby shrugged, still smiling under her mask. She walked over to her coat and picked it up before walking it over to a peg she had just noticed on the back of the door. Not that she usually felt the need to hang things, but something about being under the watching eye of some noble lady made her want to be her best self.

“So Hunting… is a family job then?” The woman tried to discreetly lift the pad and look at her wounds, but Ruby stepped forward and put a stop to that by gently moving the curious hand away with gentle fingers.

“Yup!” Ruby popped, the mask slightly distorting the clarity of the sound. “For as long as there have been Grimm, there have been Hunters, and my family were among the very first.” she said proudly. She walked back over to the hearth and pulled the needle and knife from the pot with a pair of tongs from her kit, settling them on a clean piece of cloth on the table to cool before she could use them. Ruby tucked up her sleeves and grabbed a pair of vials from her kit, the contents of both red like blood. She handed the first one to the woman.

“Drink that. It’ll help with infection.” She didn’t bother waiting to see if the woman followed instructions, and instead walked into the bathing section behind a wooden screen to dump the contents of the second vial over her hands into a bucket, rubbing the red liquid into her skin as though she was washing. She stepped back into the main room in time to see the woman set the empty tube aside on the bedside table, a grimace on her face. Ruby plucked her tools from the table, setting the empty vial aside and sat back in her chair next to the bed, pulling the pad from the woman’s leg and once again carefully inspecting the wounds.

There was… no sign of beast fever. None at all.

She had been clawed at least two hours before Ruby had inspected it the first time so it should be showing at least some red lines stemming from the wounds but instead there was… nothing.

Huh. How about that.

She had run out into a field to save someone and just happened to have found another one in ten million humans who was immune to the taint. What a strange coincidence. She grinned under her mask, excitement running through her veins like lightning. This felt an awful lot like fate.

“I’m going to have to cut you a bit more to clean these lines up, if you want this to heal nice.” She looked up at the woman, who was already looking at her.

“What do you mean, ‘heal nice’” the woman squinted at her in suspicion.

“I mean like… clean straight lines. Make them look nicer. More attractive to the eye. Like the one on your face. Also less chance of infection that way.” Ruby watched as the woman’s hand came up, gently tracing the bottom of her scar.

“I… don’t really feel that there is any way to make scarring look attractive, but if you think it will heal better then… Yes. That’s fine.” She looked away, the long fingers of her hand still working at the bottom of her scar. Ruby wondered how she got it. It wasn’t exactly common to see wealthy noble ladies with scars anywhere, let alone somewhere so visible. It seemed like it wasn’t a happy memory, given the way she was frowning.

“Well, we’re going to have to disagree on that.” Ruby pulled up her knife, settling the sharp edge against the wound but making no move to start cutting. “Would you like something? Alcohol? Something to bite on?” 

“I’ll be fine. Just get on with it.” The woman didn’t look at her. Ruby shrugged and went to work with her knife, carefully wiping away the fresh blood with a clean cloth as she went. The woman barely flinched, a distant look in her eye as she watched with a dispassionate expression.

“Are you alright?” Ruby frowned as she wiped away a fresh leak of blood as she continued to work. The woman didn’t respond, not even to blink. Alarm shot through Ruby and she pulled a hand away from the bloody mess to reach up and gently cup the woman’s chin. “Hey, can you hear me?” She angled the woman’s face so she was no longer staring into her own wound.

“Hey! Princess, look at me.” She gently shook the woman’s chin and slowly, so slowly, the heavily contracted pupils that resembled pinpricks locked onto her face, though she couldn’t say she was properly aware. “There you go, good girl. Breathe, Princess.”

“Don’t… Don’t call me Princess.” The pupils began to dilate as the woman looked at her, locking in on her face in a more conscious fashion. Ruby smiled at her, even knowing that she couldn’t see it.

“I don’t have anything else to call you, Princess.”

“…Weiss. My name is Weiss.”

“A beautiful name for a beautiful woman.” She winked. Everything about that, from the way she had said it to the wink at the end had tasted like her sister’s usual antics in her mouth, and she was both proud of herself for saying it without stumbling and appalled at herself for doing it at all. The woman, named Weiss, blinked at her, nearly back to her usual level of awareness.

“Did you just flirt with me?” she asked, somehow looking both confused and annoyed at the same time. Ruby felt sweat roll across her temples as she swallowed her nerves.

“Um. Well, I was just making sure you were paying attention. Don’t think too hard about it.” The woman gave her a dubious look and Ruby looked back down at the woman’s leg, wishing she had the time to put down a towel or something. The blood was starting to reach the bedspread. “I’m about done with the cutting, so if you think you can make it I’ll finish up quickly, get you stitched up, and then you can sleep. How does that sound.” She quickly swiped at the blood with the rapidly soaking cloth. The woman yawned, covering her mouth with a hand.

“That… sounds nice.” She gestured to her leg with an open hand, not looking at it this time for which Ruby was grateful. “Please continue.”

Ruby nodded and began her work once more in earnest. “I really think you would be more comfortable if you laid down, Miss Weiss.”

“I’m… fine. I don’t need to lay down.” Weiss rubbed at her eyes in much the same way that she had seen children do and Ruby bit at the inside of her cheek to keep her laughter inside.

“If you say so. But if you do need to sleep then make sure you lay flat. Your back will hurt enough tomorrow without being bent over a pillow till you wake.”

“I am not-” she broke off to yawn, “-a child.”

Ruby sliced the last bit of hanging flesh from its mooring, wiping it away with her cloth before setting her curved needle and the gutcord against the bottom wound. She would start with the hardest to get to and then move to the easiest.

“I never even thought that you were. Would you roll onto your side for me? It will make it easier to get to this bottom bit.” The woman rolled onto her side away from her and Ruby gripped her hip, gently scooting her closer across the mattress. The woman gasped and Ruby loosened her grip in case she might have hurt her. She rubbed her hip soothingly for a moment before she went back to her work, setting quick stitches with the speed and accuracy that came from practice. Yang liked to get particularly up close and personal when she fought and it usually resulted in fangs in uncomfortable places later.

Before she even made it halfway through the second wound, the soft buzzing of deep slumber caught her attention, the rise and fall of Weiss’s sides being the clear source.

Poor lady must have been exhausted to sleep through something like this, she thought to herself as she pulled another stitch through. She finished the rest of the stitches in relative silence but for her own humming of restful songs and Weiss’s soft buzz of exhaustion. When the last stitch was snipped from the main cord Ruby stepped away and pulled the water further off the heat so it could cool and be used for other things. She pulled her small travel mortar and pestle from its protective pouch and a handful of herbs from her stores and began to crush them into a fine powder while she waited for the water to cool a bit more.

She looked over at the woman, Weiss, laying on the bed, her freshly stitched wounds bare to the room as her hands continued to work. Weiss’s skirt had torn a bit more while she had been working on her leg. She must have been leaning on it when she got Weiss to roll over. Ruby frowned. She would find or make her a replacement before they left town.

Ruby examined Weiss in a more general sense than she had previously allowed herself to do. Her bared legs displayed an uncommon amount of strength in the form of defined muscles and Ruby felt her tongue flick out to wet her lips before she forced her attention elsewhere. Maybe Weiss could use a weapon other than her revolver? If she could use some sort of sword… Well. She would ask her when she awoke in the morning.

Ruby examined the grind of the herbs in her mortar frowning as she flicked them around to ensure an even grind. She nodded to herself and added the hot water, mixing it together into a thick paste which she scooped out with her fingers and spread across the stitched wounds as gently and carefully as she could, pausing if she felt she was about to wake her patient. Weiss hardly stirred, other than to bury her face deeper into the bed with a frown on her beautiful face. Ruby frowned to herself. This woman had an unusually high pain tolerance for a noble lady. She pressed a fresh pad of gauze over the poultice and carefully wrapped Weiss’s leg back up with a bandage, trying to lift her leg as little as possible but finding the task nearly impossible given the placement of the injury.

She lifted Weiss’s leg a little higher and froze as a still sleeping Weiss let out a pitched distressed noise akin to the scared whine of a beaten dog. Weiss’s hand gripped the bed with a white-knuckled grip and Ruby reached over with a hand of her own, covering the hand clenched in the sheet.

“Shh, Weiss. It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.” She continued wrapping her leg as well as she could with one hand as she waited for the woman to relax. It wasn’t working, so she trailed her hand up and rubbed at her arm and back, soothing her like she would a skittish young horse.

Finally, finally, after what seemed to be an almost excruciating amount of time, Weiss finally calmed, and though the frown on her face stayed firmly in place she stopped whining and crying and relaxed into a proper sleep once more. Ruby sighed in relief and finished off the bandage, stitching it closed and tucking her skirt back around her legs before retrieving her Hunters duster and throwing it gently over Weiss in place of the blanket she was sleeping on top of.

Ruby leaned on the back of her chair and sighed, glancing out the window. If she hurried she could make it out to the dead horse and back before dawn’s first light and still have time to get some sleep in before tracking down the one who placed the job posting. Though given the reactions at the gate she could probably hazard a guess as to who that was. She nodded to herself and snatched the room key from where she had placed it on the table, leaving the room as quietly as she could and locking it behind her.

She had a lot to think about.


	2. A Light in the Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thank you so much to @ddullahan for putting up with me and encouraging me to post
> 
> I know this work has a slow to update tag on it, and I really do mean that, but I wanted to get another chapter out at the start of the v8 hiatus. Missed that by a couple days, but oh well.
> 
> Then I wanted to get this chapter out for the solstice. Missed that by.... like an hour my time. LMAO whoops.
> 
> Anyway. Enjoy, and please remember to let me know if you would like anything tagged.

Weiss awoke with a start, her legs tensing and burning as she woke. The sun shone bright through the open shutters, casting through the floating dust motes that danced lazily through the air. They moved gently and lazily enough that she was almost tempted to take it personally. 

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, taking in her surroundings. She was in some kind of low quality room, but how did she…? Her hand came down on her thigh, the burning drawing her eyes as she realised that she was under an unfamiliar long coat. Its weight was unexpectedly heavy, like it was lined with metal plates. She shifted it aside and inspected her leg, cleanly bandaged with skill and quality materials.

“What…?” Movement near the room’s hearth drew her attention and her head snapped up, causing a twinge in her neck. She drew a sharp breath into her lungs as she saw the figure leaning back in the room’s sole visible chair. It appeared to be a woman. Long-limbed but lithely muscled - like a runner or one of those tumblers she had seen once at a traveling carnival. Her muscle defined clearly through her leather pants and water-resistant looking sweater. 

The whole outfit was covered in an almost unnecessary amount of straps keeping various parts flush and in place, but most of them seemed to have a function that completely escaped her. A bright crimson scarf of what looked like it could be silk was around her neck, a tattered tricorn hat on her head was angled down to cover her face, making it hard to discern if the woman was asleep or not. The cloth covering the rest of her face inked with a demonic toothy grin wasn’t helping. She would have gone over to check, but the massive, wickedly curved blade in her lap swiftly changed her mind about coming within reach.

Had she been kidnapped? Was this person her captor? For some reason she couldn’t place, that didn’t sit right with her. She shifted slightly closer in the bed, leaning forward to get a better look, hoping to see something that would jog her memory. 

She froze in place as the woman’s head snapped up, hard eyes like bright freshly-minted silver coins locked her limbs in place. They sat in silence for a moment as the silver eyed woman blinked at her, Weiss trying to slow her heart as it beat against her ribs like a trapped bird. She felt like she was looking a wolf in the eyes, and though she was fully across the room away from her, she had no doubt in her mind that she was within range of that blade.

“Oh.” The deadly woman said blandly, the deadly look vanishing as though it had never been and Weiss blinked at how young her voice sounded. “You’re awake. How do you feel?”

“I… feel fine?” Weiss pressed a hand against her furiously pounding heart.

“Good.” The woman rose to her feet… and rose and rose. Weiss was used to people being taller than her, and this woman was probably only a hand or two taller than her - but for some reason she almost seemed to take up more space than her physical presence would suggest. Weiss’s calming heart picked up its pace again as the woman lifted her wicked blade… and calmly slipped it through some straps down one leg that held it flush. “Leg doesn’t feel… hot and stretched? No strange itching? No puffy feeling?”

“I-” Weiss quickly took stock of herself, and other than the familiar feeling of a healing flesh wound, she felt fine. None of the usual signs of infection, and a normal level of stiffness that she would expect after a ‘meeting’ with her father but- wait. She had left him behind. Some weeks ago. So then where was she?

“Who are you? Where am I?” Weiss glared at the woman and resisted the urge to look for exits. The door was to her left, the window past the woman with the blade which was an instantaneous no on that, and besides she had no idea how close to the ground this room was. The light was wrong for her to tell anything through the window other than that it was day and the window was directly facing the sun.

And more to the point, she had no idea what damage had been done to her leg, or if it would even take her weight. At the very least she could tell it was nothing wrong with her bones.

The silver-eyed woman squinted in what might have been a frown if she could actually see her face. The woman took a step forward but stopped almost immediately, rocking back on her heels like a child.

“You don’t remember last night?” Weiss felt herself flush at the wording and the woman’s eyes widened and she flailed her hands in front of her. “N-not like that! You were attacked by Grimm in the woods. You were a bit clawed before I could get to you and bring you to the nearest town.”

Weiss felt memories filter back to her, broken and fragmented and backlit by the moon in the manner of a dream. Beowolves, shooting, running out of bullets and thinking she was going to die. Solitas. She frowned, her heart clenching in pain for her beloved white mare. She remembered making it to the clearing, the Beowolves circling her and then… a savior. A knight in leather armor on a horse as black as the night. She looked down to the bed when the blanket she had been using had fallen. It was the same coat.

“You’re the Hunter. The one who saved me and treated my leg.” The woman nodded, the corners of her eyes lifting in a hidden smile. “Why?” The smile disappeared.

“Why what?” The woman cocked her head to the side like a curious dog, the hat making the motion even more pronounced.

“Why did you help me? Why did you save me? Why did you clean and stitch my leg?” Weiss slapped her hand against the mattress. “Why!? You don’t know me! You aren’t owed anything from me, and I can’t pay you! So why? Why are you helping me?”

The woman- Ruby if she remembered her name right- crossed her arms over her chest, her head still tilted curiously to the side.

“I’m… a Hunter? That’s what we do.” She reached behind her and spun the chair she had been in before around in front of her, sitting on it backwards with one leg up across the seat. 

“That’s part of the job, I suppose. We kill the Grimm. We rescue the people. We ask for nothing in return aside from what we need to keep doing our jobs. We make no profit, we gain no lands, and we gain no titles aside from what other Hunters give us. We travel until the job kills us or we retire to teach or raise a family, though most of us don’t get that far. We die a warrior’s death and lay in a pauper’s grave, with nothing to show that we were there but our memories in the minds and hearts of the ones we leave behind.” She leaned on the back of the chair with an elbow, her chin propped on a palm, seeming completely content with the dismal fate she had described.

It sounded… awful. 

It sounded hard on the spirit as well as the flesh. 

It sounded like one of the worst fates one could have in life.

It sounded like the ultimate adventure, and it set her blood humming in her veins like nothing had in so very long. Something in the woman’s silver eyes sparkled with excitement from under her hat, almost like she agreed with Weiss’s unspoken conclusion.

“Oh! That reminds me!” The hand that the woman was leaning on snapped away to slap at her leg before pointing into the corner opposite the door. “I retrieved your saddlebags for you.” Weiss blinked at the sudden change in conversation before leaning over to the other side of the bed to see. As stated, her bags were laying on the ground next to her, still latched closed in the particular way she preferred and untouched but for the blood which had been mostly wiped off.

“When…? How long was I asleep?” Weiss asked, carefully pressing a hand against the wound in her leg as the stitches pulled uncomfortably.

“Um…” Ruby looked out the window behind her, checking the light. “About six hours? Maybe seven? Actually you should probably go back to sleep for a little while. You need to heal.”

“What?!” Weiss sat up straight and then wilted slightly, though she fought it. The blood in her body objecting to the sudden movement by making her vision go momentarily white. Ruby launched forward, somehow completely avoiding upsetting the chair she had been set in as she rushed forward to catch her by the arm as she fell. 

Either she had not been as relaxed as she seemed or this woman was ungodly fast.

“Whoa there,” She said with a quiet soothing voice. Weiss blinked up at her as her vision cleared, before she realised that this stranger had her hands on her. She jerked her arm away. Ruby released her without a fight, hands raised in front of her in a gesture of peace.

“Don’t touch me.” Weiss barked as she sat up as straight as she could while her vision was still swimming.

“Yes, Ma’am.” Ruby says without condescension, back up to her chair once again and returning to her former posture. “I did promise not to touch you without permission, but for some reason I keep forgetting.” 

She shook her head as Weiss’s eyes finally finished clearing. Ruby pulled her hat off, revealing black and red hair in a short sporty cut, which she dragged her fingers through before placing the hat back on her head at a slightly different angle. Weiss blinked at her. She had never seen hair in multiple tones before. 

Odd coloured hair, and odd coloured eyes, with an odd manner, an odd burr to her accent, and a strange profession. Was anything about this woman normal?

“Did you get any sleep at all?” Weiss asked, quite unsure why she cared, though she was rather surprised to find that she did. She was glad that none of her family were here to see her care about the health of the ‘help’. Father would surely call her into his study for another ‘meeting’. She felt a shudder creep up her spine.

“I did sleep, I promise.” Ruby noticed her shudder and misinterpreted it. “Here, let's get you under the blanket. It’s probably a lot warmer then my coat this time of year.”

“I would rather bathe.” Weiss lifted her face with a sniff of disdain. How dare this woman think she could tell her what to do?

Ruby sat up in the chair and crossed her arms over her chest, which Weiss noted with something that felt an awful lot like jealousy, was clearly larger than her own. “You are in no shape to bathe on your own, and somehow I doubt you would let me help you.”

“I am not a broken child. I am fully capable of seeing to my own needs regardless of my injury.” Weiss glared at her, feeling ice in her eyes.

“Oh~?” Ruby drawled at her, her strange accent thickening as she drew the sound out. “Get up then. Prove me wrong.”

Weiss grit her teeth and swung her legs over the bed, determined to teach this person to respect her. Her still booted feet hit the floor and she drew a silent breath through her teeth before standing. Her leg twinged, the searing pain of her stitches holding her scored flesh together was one that was intimately familiar, but she held her head high and allowed no sign of pain to cross her features.

Ruby blinked, then blinked again.

“Oh, wow. Okay, you clearly have an unbelievable pain tolerance. Sit back down.” She held a hand out and pushed it down the way one would mime a sit for a dog. Weiss glared at her.

“Um… Please? Please sit down?” The hand stopped and the second came up to match in a calming gesture. 

Weiss held her glare but allowed herself to sink into sitting on the edge on the bed as gracefully as she could on what was basically a single leg. Ruby rose slowly from her chair and patted imaginary dust from the front of her clothes.

“Well, I suppose I’ll see about having the Innkeeper send you some food then. If you’re still awake when I get back I’ll get you some bathwater, how’s that?” She set her hand on her hip, the other resting comfortably on the hilt of her blade. 

The gesture made sweat gather on the back of Weiss’s neck despite its casual nature. The woman had made no gesture to harm her yet, but that was partially the problem. She had made every motion to back off when Weiss allowed any sign of discomfort to slip through her mask, and it was mildly unnerving. If this woman would just react in a normal fashion Weiss might be able to get a handle on the situation, but as it was, she had no idea when she would finally explode. She really hoped it would be soon so she knew what she was in for. Would it start with hitting right off the bat, or would she build up to it with shouting first? Maybe she could hurry this along.

“And just where will you be going?” Weiss asked, lifting her nose in the way of the noble ladies she had so despised at court.

“I… have to work?” Ruby cocked her head again, the gesture still very dog-like. “I came to this town for a reason, and it wasn’t just because it was convenient. They’re having some Grimm problems.”

“And I suppose I am to be locked in here, then?” Weiss asked hotly. She wouldn’t be made a prisoner again. She would die first. Ruby’s head snapped into an upright position and Weiss braced for the inevitable.

Ruby’s hand went into her pocket on her pants, leaving Weiss’s eye’s locked on the gesture. Ruby stepped forward until she was still slightly out of reach and pulled her hand from her pocket and opened it for her displaying a heavy key.

What?

“This is the room key. The door locks from the outside with it and from within without it.” Ruby held her hand out, as though waiting for her to take it.

This had to be a trick of some kind. Reaching for the key would put her wrist just inside grabbing distance, so that had to be it. Weiss sneered. Did this woman really think her so stupid? Ruby sighed and turned around, walking to the only table she could see in the room and set the key on top of it with a dull click. She turned back toward her.

“That is the only key I have. The other is with the Innkeeper, if there is another copy, and I will not ask him for it.” She bowed at the waist in a Mistral gesture. “Please lock the door behind me when I leave, and if you would be so kind as to let me back in when I return?”

Weiss floundered. She wasn’t expecting- She had no frame of reference for this. What did she want? What could something like this accomplish for Ruby? What was she missing? Ruby cleared her throat, rocking back on her heels as Weiss realized she had just rudely let the conversation hang.

“I… will see what I can do.” Weiss responded noncommittally. 

“That’s good enough for me!” The Hunter rocked up on her toes happily. “Um… may I have my coat before I go?” Weiss scowled and reached over, throwing the heavy coat at the Hunter’s face. The Hunter caught it with one hand, swinging it up over her shoulders and slipping it on in a fluid motion, her eyes nearly closed with what was most likely a large smile.

“Thank-you, Miss Weiss! I’ll ask the Innkeeper to send you some food.” She waved over her shoulder as she quickly popped the door open and closed it quickly and quietly behind her.

“…What?”

———

Ruby sighed as she closed the door behind her, the quietly muffled sound of Weiss’s voice calling through the door in a way that didn’t seem to be intended for her ears causing her to pause for a moment to see if the prickly woman needed her. After only silence followed Ruby reached back to knock on the door lightly.

“Lock the door, please.” Ruby called back through the door. Pitched grumbles followed her words, but eventually the heavy lock on the door slid into place, followed by the rattle of the thin chain across the top. Ruby nodded to herself. “Thank-you!” She called before setting off down the hall at a clipped trot.

The stairs at the end of the hall filtered directly into the tavern below, and she moved down them silently as she had been trained, resulting in spooking the Innkeeper at the bottom.

“Oh! My word! I’m so sorry, good Hunter.” He stepped quickly and awkwardly to the side, revealing the tavern at large to her as he moved. She scanned the room, and spotted five men sitting at a table, one in fine furs and silks and sitting with the self-importance that only someone with far too much money could properly manage. 

Weiss had looked like that briefly when she was being prickly at her, Ruby mused, but that was no surprise. She had already figured out that the woman came from money, which only made her lonely presence in the woods last night that much more interesting. As had her comment about not being able to pay her.

She mentally shook herself and focused on the rich man's companions, the four of whom were obviously mercenaries of some kind. Their heavy leather armor and short swords would have given that away on their own, but the clear wear on the stocks of their shotguns told her that they were more comfortable at range then up close. The merchant himself appeared to be unarmed, which was a curious choice in this day and age. The Grimm weren’t the only dangerous things in the world.

“Is- is there something I can do for you, Hunter?” The Innkeeper wrung the edge of a platter in his hands. Ruby smiled, even knowing he couldn’t really see it under her mask.

“Yes, actually. I was just coming to find you. My companion has an injured leg and can’t make it back down the stairs on her own right now. Could someone bring her up some food?” 

The merchant and his party finally started to notice her presence at the bottom of the stairs, the guards hands going to guns and sword hilts as the merchant himself sized her up. He had a greedy look in his eye that she immediately didn’t like, but she wouldn’t say anything to him unless he did something to make her.

“It would be my honor, good Hunter.” The Innkeeper bowed at the waist, an expression of courtesy that only made her uncomfortable. “Would you be requiring anything else?”

“Not yet. Maybe some hot water for baths later, but I would prefer she eat and get some more rest before that. Though I suppose if she asks for it herself then… well I can’t really stop you. It's her choice after all.” Ruby shrugged. “Is the Headman about? I would like to start my work soonish.”

“Oh. He… He should be around the Blacksmith’s this time of morning, I think. Though if you wanted to wait he should be here around lunch.” The Innkeeper waved a hand in a general indication of the tavern. “Most of the town is gone to the mines or the logging camps for the day but they’ll be back around sundown. Nothing much happens around here till then, and we still have about a week until the worst of the Grimm attacks happen.”

Ruby was nodding along, everything this man was saying matching up with what she knew of the area until he reached the last part. “What do you mean ‘we have about a week’? The Grimm attack in a pattern?” Ruby split her attention between the merchant, who still hadn’t stopped looking at her, and the helpful Innkeeper.

“Well, not the regular ones, no. But every full moon we hear the gate boys tell tales the next morning of a giant Grimm, taller than the walls even. It lurks around the edge of the forest and menaces from the shadows.” He huffs a nervous laugh that is just on the controlled side of hysteria. “Most of the people in this town think the stress of the nightly small Grimm raids is driving them insane. But I was at Mountain Glenn, and I remember what you and the Dragon slew.” He shivered, his gaze haunted. “Shame you don’t have her with you this time. I’d feel a lot safer with two mighty Hunters instead of one. No offense.”

“None taken.” Ruby huffed a laugh. She wished Yang was here too, if only so that Weiss might be more comfortable. “So you think it’s like Mountain Glenn? What makes you say that.”

“The way the boys describe it. It never lets them get a clear look, only impressions, and it never leaves the trees.” His voice lowered as he spoke, a hushed whisper as he looked nervously toward the merchants party. High amounts of Grimm activity was bad for business, no doubt.

“Hmm. I’ll look into it, don’t worry.” She set a comforting hand on his shoulder and he looked at her with a deep sort of trust and relief in his eyes that spoke louder then any words that he could have said. “But for now I think I should meet the Headman of the village.”

The look of trust shifted to one of uncertainty. “Be careful, good Hunter. The Headman is… not a very kind man.”

“I will keep that in mind. Don’t let me keep you, good Innkeeper.” Ruby nodded, her fingertips brushing against the peak of her hat in a Hunter’s salute. He nodded back.

“Fear the old blood, good Hunter.” He quickly bowed from the waist again, before brushing past her and heading for the kitchen. Ruby watched him for a second before heading for the door, right past the merchants table.

The man leered at her. “An what’s a shapely thing like you doing in a backwater like this?” 

He leaned toward her and made a grab at her coat, which she didn’t even have to dodge because his aim was so terrible. She sneered under her mask. The dirty old bastard was drunk before noon. She kept walking without breaking stride.

“Hey! Don’t you… ignore me!” He trailed off halfway into his sentence as though he had forgotten why he was yelling. His mercenaries did nothing to stop her from leaving, which she was grateful for. She would hate to get the tavern bloody after the Innkeeper had been so nice. “Don’t you know who I am!?”

Ruby pushed the door open and stepped out into the bright light of the morning, pulling the brim of her hat down lower over her eyes. She lifted her nose, looking for the scent of hot iron and burning coal. It drifted past her nose on the lazy morning breeze and she turned in the direction it indicated, adjusting her scarf as she went. 

It was a lovely morning. Fall chillness in the air and woodsmoke on the breeze. The kind of morning that her dog would love, back home with her dad. Dad would be… prepping the fields for winter this time of the year. Making sure he had enough feed for the horses and any foals born before the spring began in earnest. Dad bred the best Hunting horses the Beacon Guild ever had, and Yang was looking forward to being able to take his place when she retired to raise a family of her own.

Ruby on the other hand would probably always travel along the forgotten roads. Oh she would take care of the horses if Yang wasn’t able to of course, but the adventure of the road and the howls of the Grimm pulled to her in a way nothing else ever had. Maybe, if she was lucky, she would find someone who felt the same. Someone who would journey with her until the road’s end.

The smithy sat in front of her, just far enough from the wall that a person could walk between them, its large barn style door sitting open on one side. The lack of clanging coming from the open door and the lack of smoke from its chimney told her even more than the state of the guards weapons what kind of smithy she would be dealing with.

She took a deep breath, hoping against hope that she was wrong, but if she wasn’t then if the old blood could give her strength that would be grand.

She came around the corner of the smithy, finding a man in a thick leather apron and a man with a thick rope of office draped across his shoulders sitting at a table, wooden mugs of… something she hoped wasn’t beer given the time of day were clenched in their large fists. The men looked at her, sizing her up as she walked up and finding her wanting if she had to judge by the sneers.

“An what’re you supposed ta be?” The smith sneered. “Bit early for Grimm’s night, ain’t it?” He belched loudly and lifted his mug back to his lips as if to make good on the new extra space. Ruby resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

“I find that it’s never to early for the Grimm.” Ruby responded dryly. “They do as they please, with no regard for humans other than as a source of food and entertainment.”

“You must be that so-called Hunter that arrived last night.” The Headman replied, doubt in her abilities clear in his voice. His eyes traced her form in a way that made her want to break his jaw, but she said nothing. He sneered at her silence. “You don’t look like much.” He spat on the ground towards her.

On second thought, maybe it was a good idea that Yang took the other mission. If any of these men had behaved this way with her around then… well, there was more than one way to finish a job.

“My skills speak for themselves. I don’t work for your approval.” Ruby hardened her gaze, her attention locked on the headman. If any real trouble was going to start, it would come from this direction first. The headman scowled, his face darkening like a thunderhead.

“You think you don’t need my approval?!” He growled, leaning on the table with an open glower, both clearly trying and failing to intimidate her. “Fine.” He snarled, leaning back in his chair with a sneer. “Then you will have no assistance from my people. You are welcome to any and all facilities, since I cannot deny you that much, but you will have nothing from the villagers.” 

He crossed his skinny arms over his chest. “The leather worker will tan you no hides, the smith will heat you no metal, the Innkeeper will cook you no food. You want something in this town, you do it yourself. And when you come to your senses, you will beg me on bended knees to help you. I will accept nothing less.” He lifted his drink and pulled a deep draw. Ruby raised an eyebrow at him, entirely unimpressed.

“So let me get this straight; I am still afforded access to the towns resources and establishments, but everything I need I must do for myself?”

The headman nodded firmly and the blacksmith sneered.

“Very well. I will be making use of the smithy for the duration of my time in this town. Given the fact that the forge has been allowed to go cold I trust that won’t be a problem.” She turned on her heel and stalked away towards the open door, leaving the smith sputtering at the table.

“Don’t you wreck any of my things, you wench!” The smithy roared. She finally allowed her eyes to roll and entered the shop, a list of tasks already building in her mind.

But, first things first, a proper smithy needed a hot forge.

———

Ruby growled to herself as she pushed aside yet another stack of empty bottles, not caring as some of them smashed on the floor.

Where the hell were the draw-plates?! How did this smithy turn out any work at all when even the most basic equipment was nowhere to be found?!

She snarled and grabbed a bottle, whirling and throwing it with all her strength at the wall next to the door where it exploded in a glorious shower of glass shards. She sighed heavily, already disappointed with herself before the final shard hit the ground. Just one more thing for her to clean up before she could start to get some proper work done in this half-assembled-hole-in-the-wall that the smith had the absolute unmitigated gall to call-

Breathe, Ruby. Breathe.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose, holding it until her lungs started to burn before slowly letting it rush out of her through her lips. This hutch was in shambles enough without her letting the Grimm’s own rage take her and make it worse. She took another breath… and heard heavy hobnailed boots on the gravel of the entrance.

“Havin’ a good time, pipsqueak?” The smith called, a loud burp accompanied by the sound of fingernails being dragged over stubble followed. Ruby continued to hold her breath, waiting for the burn in her lungs. “Oi! I’m talkin to ya’, brat! Have some respec’ fer yer elders!” The gravel crunched under his boots.

“If you take even one step into this building, I will remove your hand at the shoulder.” Ruby let the breath slip out with her words, completely calm in her body if not her words. “And if you still persist, I will take a leg at the knee. Then we shall finally see what kind of smith and man you really are.” Her eyes opened and she stared at the smith standing frozen in the doorway. “Because the state of this building does not speak well of you. Not well at all.”

“You- You wouldn’t dare! I’m the only smith this town got, an I’m friends wit’ the Headman! He’ll have the guards at you afor you can ev’n draw yer blade!” The man quivered, his mustache shaking on his lip.

“If you really believe that, then why are you shaking.” 

Ruby shook her head and sighed. She didn’t like this man but… That was really no reason for this. She was just frustrated, really. She missed Yang. “Look. Don’t come back here until I am at least a day out from this town, and maybe I will forgive the state of this… Forge.” She pointed at the open door over his shoulder. “Now leave.”

The so-called smith turned on his heel and ran like his feet were on fire.

Ruby huffed a hot breath through her nose. As soon as she was in a town with postal service she was going to be sending a letter to the main branch of the Smiths Guild and requesting someone out here for an audit of this man's work. His forge and the way he had behaved so far were an insult to the craft and the metal they worked.

Taking another calming breath, Ruby turned her attention back to the lighted forge, walking over to check it’s temperature with the back of her hand held in front of its yawning orange mouth. It was nearly the right temperature to start really heating it up.

She grinned to herself. Next to actually working the hot metal in her hands, bringing a forge to a roaring heat was one of her favourite things about the craft. She swiftly unbuckled her various straps and buckles holding her sweater in place, eventually pulling them and the sweater itself off over her head. She flung the mess of wool and leather into the nearest open chair, leaving her in only a sleeveless shirt of a material so thin it almost didn’t count as such. 

Ruby lifted her hands over her head, stretching in the cool noon air as she tried to get used to the feeling of her suddenly bare skin, a smile on her face that was hidden under her mask. She picked her hat up from the chair she had accidentally flung it to and happily flipped it into place on her head. 

Chuckling under her breath, she moved around to the side of the forge where coal was piled, a shovel sticking out of it in a very lazy fashion. She grabbed the shovel and started to fill the hatch in the back, mildly impressed at the style of forge. She hadn’t seen a hatch loader in almost… well probably since she first picked up a hammer in Vale. There was no way the current smith was the one who installed it. It was probably whoever trained him, or some other smith who had long since died. If they could see the state of it now…

Ruby shook her head and went back to shoveling the coal, before a glint further behind the forge caught her attention. She paused and went back to inspect it and, lo and behold, the missing draw plates, along with a series of plug and shell plates. 

The smith in this town probably hid them because he didn’t know how to use them. Oh, but this was fantastic. If she could get some lead she could restock her and Weiss’s ammo… She needed to find out what caliber her revolver took. And also if she could use some other type of weapon. Hopefully a sword. She really really hoped she could use a sword. That would be great.

Humming to herself she went back to shoveling, songs from the coast on her tongue, of fishing and logging and marriage, leaving her with a lightness in her heart and limbs as she kicked the loader in and started on the belows. It was only a single chamber belows but it was better than using the fan she supposed, as she sang her next song to the wheezing of its aged leather.

She had big plans for this forge. But first she needed to get through the important prep like getting the metals right and taking measurements. Oh, and the actual work. The reason she was in this town in the first place. That had to happen too at some point. But after all that, then she would be allowed to play, and she couldn’t wait.

———

Ruby walked through the center street of town, back towards the Inn. Her sweater back in place on her body, naturally. She would never think to walk about in it.

She idly spun a wooden walking stick that she had quickly whipped up at the forge while she was waiting for some metals to heat. The stick was nearly finished - it only needed to be sized properly in order to do its job, but she hoped that this silly wooden stick would be enough to help the princess move around a bit. 

She would rather the woman stay in bed for a while yet, but in their short and limited interactions, she had come to the conclusion that this woman would be much like Yang and herself. Unable and unwilling to stay in bed when there were other things to be doing.

She huffed a laugh between verses of her song, a happy one about a man’s impending marriage to the woman he loves most, and passed by the notice board she had seen the night before when they had arrived. 

The Hunter’s Lantern sat quietly behind it, hidden from the main view of the board. She should check them, see what the posted jobs were and what the last Hunters to pass through had wanted to say. She chose the more mundane notice board first.

Most of the board was the usual things, a farmer who was losing sheep a village over and wondered if someone knew anything about them. A local horse breaker offering his services. A warning about bandit sightings. But the most curious thing on the board was a missive from a baron far to the north, offering a large reward for the return of his missing daughter, who was also his heir. 

It made Ruby frown.

She and Yang had first seen this notice posted about two months ago, in a coastal town far to the north, though not as far as the Baron’s actual lands. The reward it offered was large for the woman’s return, and even reported sightings of the woman had the potential to yield great rewards if the sightings reported lead to the recovery of the woman. Yang had wanted to take the job. Rescuing a stolen Lady from her abductors would make for a heck on an adventure, and a reward of that size would go a long way towards their family and the guild, - but something about the job hadn’t smelled right to Ruby. 

Looking at the notice again, it still didn’t. There was no drawn picture of the missing woman for one, only a vague description, and while the reward offered was appropriately large given the fact that the missing woman was the Baron’s heiress, it was slightly too large. More than large enough to attract all sorts of unsavory folk.

The biggest thing that bothered her was two-fold. It made no mention of who took the woman, and it made no mention of returning her alive and unharmed.

Yang had thought that those sorts of things were obvious enough to not need to be explicitly stated, and indeed plenty of jobs like that never did, but for some reason it really bothered her this time. She just couldn’t set aside her misgivings enough to willingly take the job on, and as always Yang had trusted her judgment and they had left it alone.

She didn’t regret her decision. Nothing about the posting had changed and nothing had changed her mind. But there was one thing that she now did regret, and this time she wouldn’t ignore the impulse. 

She reached out her hand and tore the notice from the board, stuffing it in her pocket.

There. That made her feel a little better.

She nodded firmly to herself, content in her choice, and moved around the back toward the Hunter’s Lantern, searching her pocket as she went for her special lighter. She knelt on the ground, the leg with her blade attached stretched out comfortably behind her as she reached forward with her lighter in her hand, flicking the cap back with a flick of her wrist. She spun the sparker and pulled from within, from the place where her inner fire lay, and used its magic to light the lantern with blue flame.

Instantly, the town with its dirt streets and wooden buildings faded away into blue and black mists, the light of the setting sun fading with them until an omnipresent directionless blue light took its place. Her hand and the lantern stayed as they were but for the shift in colours, as rows of ghostly apparitions appeared in front of her, some in small groups, most by themselves, but all kneeling with heads bowed. Hunter’s Emblems were on their chests in clear display.

Each of them was a Hunter or Hunter party who had passed through the town, either for a job or simply passing through, it didn’t matter. All Hunters checked in with the lantern when they left the area. It was custom, and necessary for the spread of news and warnings.

The one directly in front of her was a familiar shape, the javelin and shield emblem on her chest as big an indicator of her identity as if Ruby could see her face. 

Pyrrha Nikos. The Spear of the Beacon Guild. The Invincible Woman, and one of Ruby’s dearest friends.

Ruby took a deep breath of the ghostly air and separated herself from her flesh, stepping free of her body to rise from herself as a ghostly blue apparition, leaving her body kneeling on the ground with hand still outstretched. Ruby reached forward her spirit hand, a translucent imitation, and set it on the Spear’s shoulder before stepping back. Pyrrha’s shadow looked up, unseeing, and rose before bending over in a smooth bow. 

The shade of a man next to her looked up as well but did not rise. This message had been left by Pyrrha, not her companion. Ruby squinted at him. The emblem on his chest was unfamiliar to her, resembling a pair of crescents tipped onto their points and fitted one inside the other. Ruby shrugged to herself. Pyrrha had probably done what she was about to do.

“This town is troubled.” A ghostly approximation of Pyrrha’s voice interrupted her thought process. “Though my current mission is pressing, this town will require aid at some point in the coming months. I doubt I will be able to remain in the area to fix it, to my own regret.”

Ruby huffed a short laugh with a shake of her head. Pyrrha wanted to fix the problems of every town she passed through, but honestly Ruby wasn’t one to talk. Yang often accused her of the same thing.

“Three weeks past, the Headman’s wife took ill. This village is small, with only a few shops. The nearest apothecary is shared with the logging camp, the mine, and another village higher up the mountain. The Headman did not send for them. I offered my services, and was declined. He insisted that it was only a passing illness, sure to clear up in a matter of days. No one in the town has seen her since. Now the Headman says that his wife has left him, and taken their daughter with her. Indeed, the daughter and the wife are now both absent, and the town is divided.”

“Most of the town seems happy to think that they left him. They seem to believe that the story the Headman has told is entirely believable, given that the Headman himself is a brute of a man. A small amount of the town thinks that he is lying, though they are not entirely certain what he is lying about, and have no proof besides. I have no time to investigate, though I dearly wish to. Whatever the truth of the matter may be, there is something odd happening here.”

“The Grimm activity is increasing.” 

The shade bowed again, a perfect mirror of the first time, and returned to her kneeling position. The message was complete. 

Ruby sighed and returned to her flesh, sinking into herself with a feeling like putting on an already warm sweater after not realising you were cold. She opened her eyes, the town returning to the orange of the setting sun as the lantern went out. She flicked the lighter closed and returned it to her pocket, spinning the wooden cane idly before letting it come to rest on her shoulder.

So.

The Headman had some secrets it seemed.

Well since she was in this town to solve the Grimm problems, it would only make sense for her to investigate this while she was here. They started around the same time by the sounds of it, and that was enough to connect them in her mind. At this point it didn’t matter to her if they actually were or not, she would look into it regardless.

She looked up, checking the position of the sun.

Whatever she was going to do about the mystery, it was going to have to wait. She needed to check on Weiss and have a bath and a meal before the night's real work began.


	3. A Swift Blade in the Night

She knocked on the closed door to the room she and her companion were sharing, before placing a finger to her covered lips as she looked at the Inn’s sole chambermaid.

“Miss Weiss? It’s me. I’m back, and I have something for you.” She glanced down at the pair of loaded plates of food balanced on her arm. “I also brought bathwater and food.” The silence behind the door carried on for a long moment. The maid looked at her confused and opened her mouth to say something. Ruby silenced her impulse with a sharp look, bumping her finger against her lips repeatedly to drive home the point. Eventually she heard sheets rustle behind the door, the sound so faint that she wouldn’t have noticed it unless she was looking for it.

“Are you okay, Miss Weiss?” Ruby went to knock again but stopped as she heard the first bolt slid back in the door. For a noble woman, Weiss could move remarkably silently, even with an injured leg. The final lock slid out of place and the door cracked open, revealing a sleepy and disgruntled looking Weiss. Ruby grinned, knowing that Weiss couldn’t see it.

Even like this, Weiss was still by far the most beautiful woman Ruby had the pleasure of seeing.

“I’m fine! It simply took me a moment to get to the door.” Weiss glared at her, before her eyes flicked to the maid.

“May we come in please? I would like to have something to eat at the very least before I go to work.”

Weiss moved back, her limp well disguised, pulling the door with her as she rolled her eyes. “You are more than able to eat in this Inn’s common room you know.” Ruby stepped lightly past her, stepping closer then was probably necessary to clear the door for the maid as she hauled in her hot water. 

Ruby’s covered nose almost brushed against Weiss’s own, and the pale woman’s breath caught nervously. She looked down at this feisty woman and felt happiness in her like soap bubbles, shivery and light. Up close, Weiss had the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen, and she would put money on never seeing prettier eyes anywhere in the world. They were sapphire blue, yes, but also ice blue in spots scattered throughout like the stars in the night sky, and framed by lashes of the purest white like fresh snow. She was ethereal.

“I could, but then you would have to eat alone.” She stepped back, moving the chair next to the only table and indicating for Weiss to sit as she placed one of the plates of food on it, fishing a utensil from a pocket in her coat. Weiss raised an elegant white eyebrow at her and Ruby shrugged, stepping back to sit on the bed with her own plate of food. “I would never be so rude to you, Miss Weiss. I brought you here with me, so together we will stay. Unless you want me to leave, though at this point I don’t think I would go.” 

She untucked the wooden cane from where it was held by one of her elbows. Weiss’s eye’s locked onto it with an almost alarming intensity. In the back of the room behind the wooden screen the maid began to pour her water into the bath.

“This is for you by the way.” Ruby gestured with the cane. “I’ll still need to size it down, but I figured you would enjoy the added mobility while your leg heals, though the fact that you’re even still in here makes me happy. My sister would have ripped the door off by now and gone screaming into the forest. She doesn’t take to bedrest well.” 

Ruby passed the head of the cane over, holding onto the tip as she was waiting for Weiss to grab it. Weiss stared at it silently for a moment, looking up at Ruby occasionally as if to see if she was still serious. Ruby simply held the cane still while she waited. She would rather not be here all night, but if that's what it took to get Weiss to trust her even a little bit, she would do it in a heartbeat.

Weiss’s left hand came out, slow and tentative as she instinctively gripped the wooden shaft like the hilt of a sword. Ruby felt her blood sing in excitement as she released the wood to Weiss completely, watching as she shifted it, still behaving as though the wood were live steel, and placed the tip onto the wooden floor boards. She finally allowed the cane to take her weight, and Ruby almost has to physically restrain her excitement.

“Oh, good. I won't have to take it down very much at all.” She cleared her throat, looking at her plate of food and pulling another utensil out of her pocket. It was a little wooden spoon with the barest hints of tines along the tip. A basic travel utensil. She flipped it idly around her fingers as she watched Weiss’s boots and the cane move almost silently to the chair where the noble woman finally sat. The meal was a simple fare of mashed tubers and some sort of meat in gravy, and she eagerly swirled the two together on her plate before sticking a spoonful of the mess in her mouth, holding her mask out from her face with her other hand.

“You know,” Weiss started in an aristocratic tone, “You would probably have an easier time eating if you removed your mask.”

Ruby swirled the concoction around in her mouth for a moment, savoring the smoothness of the tubers and the meaty elements of the gravy while she thought of the best way to answer the question that Weiss hadn’t asked.

“I don’t take it off around strangers.” Ruby responded after she swallowed. Weiss inspected the cleanliness of her utensil rather than meet her eyes, and finding it wanting she pulled a cloth from her sleeve and further cleaned it. “Maybe when I know you a little better, Princess.”

Weiss slammed the utensil down on the table, the loud sound causing the maid to squeak behind the curtain before she finished pouring and hurried from the room. “Do not call me Princess. I am not a Princess.” Ruby watched the maid scurry through the open door, chewing on a piece of meat. Venison?

“Well that wasn’t very nice.” Ruby stated blandly before stuffing another spoonful into her mouth. Weiss glared at her. “Fine, fine. I won’t call you Princess again. Maybe.” She grinned around her spoon as Weiss rolled her eyes. She finally began the food that Ruby had brought her from the tavern below, and Ruby watched her reaction carefully. It was… nothing. The woman continued eating as though this was the food she had grown up on, even though an idiot could tell it wasn’t.

Ruby hummed around her spoon. Either this woman was exceptionally polite, something she doubted in a way, or she had been on the road a lot longer than Ruby had initially thought.

“So, tell me something, Miss Weiss.” She started, pausing in her own meal. Weiss flinched in a barely perceptible manor. “You said you were on your way to your sister?”

Weiss set her spoon aside and sat with her back almost unnaturally straight, hands folded in her lap. “Yes, that’s right.” She was giving Ruby her undivided attention, which normally would have been both flattering and alarming for Ruby. Beautiful woman didn’t pay attention to her. But she was on a mission right now, and didn’t have time to freak out. She could do that later maybe.

Ruby hummed again. “Where does she live?” She was looking for it, and that was probably the only reason she noticed it, as smoothly as Weiss covered over it.

She hesitated for a single instant. “Haven.”

Ruby nodded. “That’s quite a ways off. You didn’t have an escort with you?”

“The trip is long enough without it taking longer waiting for a party. I travel faster alone.” 

Smooth. Very smooth. Either Weiss was a very accomplished liar or she actually believed what she was saying. The only way to know for certain was to probe deeper, but could she do that and still maintain the fragile trust she was building?

“It can be faster, yeah. But I would still rather travel in a small group than alone, and I’m a Hunter.” She shrugged and swirled her spoon in her food again. “That’s one of the reasons I have a partner. The road can get awfully lonely when you’re by yourself.”

Weiss dismissed her concerns with a wave. “That’s nothing new. We are all alone in the end.”

“Still.” Ruby frowned before she abruptly thumped her hand into the palm of its pair, as though she had just now thought of something. “Hey! What if I go with you?!”

Weiss started, uncertainty on her face. “You… want to go with me?”

“Yeah! It’ll be like an adventure! I’ve never been to Haven before! It’ll be fun, and way safer than traveling alone!” She brought a hand up to tap against her covered lips. “Though we would have to meet up with my partner on the way south before we can really swing east for any length of time. She would beat the tar out of me if she thought I was trying to leave her behind.”

“Why?” 

Ruby blinked, startled by the question as well as the genuine way it was asked. Weiss looked sincerely baffled. “You’ve already done so much to help me, and I can do nothing for you. Why would you want to help me more?”

Ruby crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her head as she tried to find the right way to answer. If she did this wrong, she had a feeling she would lose her chance.

“Miss Weiss?” Ruby set her now empty plate aside, leaning forward onto her knees and locking her eyes to Weiss’s startled blues. “Do you believe in destiny?”

“I-” that was clearly not what she had been expecting to hear. “I don’t know.”

“I do.” Ruby breathed deeply. “I believe in destiny, and I am learning to see her hand on the loom of fate. Meeting you in the woods when I did? It feels like her work. If you let me, I will stay with you, at least until I can see this thread more clearly in fates weave. But only if you let me.” She reached her hand forward palm up, crossing half of the gap between them. “Will you let me, Miss Weiss? May I stay with you?”

“I- This is a lot.” Weiss leaned away from her hand, eyeing it like a snake she had found in a basket. “This is a lot to spring on a stranger, don’t you think?” She gripped her skirt with both hands, wrinkling the fabric. “It’s a lot of time and effort to waste on a random coincidence.”

The maid chose this moment to come back, carrying another large pot of hot water for the bath. Weiss seemed mildly relieved for a moment, but swiftly stiffened back up when she noticed that Ruby’s hand didn’t drop.

“What if you’re wrong?” Weiss asked quietly, barely more than a whisper of accented wind from pink lips.

“I haven’t been yet.” Ruby smiled, responding in the same tone. She could feel something like fate pulling at the threads of her conversation, trying to tug this pale woman onto their shared path.

“But what if you are?” Weiss asked slightly louder, though still little more than an angry whisper. Ruby wasn’t fooled though. Beneath that anger was hope and fear. She didn’t know why, but she could see them as clear as day.

“There is a first time for everything, it's true. But, not this time.” Ruby leaned farther forward, her palm still extended. “I would stake my life on it.”

Weiss’s eyes flickered from her hand to her eyes and back again, conflict clear in her countenance and her posture as she alternately leaned forward and away.

“Fine!” Weiss relented, retracting her own hands to hide them against her sides. “By the Gods, but you are the strangest woman I have ever met!”

Ruby laughed, the sound feeling freeing as the tension of the moment was allowed to slip away. “I will get a handshake from you at some point, Miss Weiss. Don’t think you’ve gotten away from it.”

“I do not negotiate with highwaymen.” Weiss lifted her nose into the air in a very aristocratic fashion, even as she returned to eating the peasant fair that was their meal of the night. Ruby laughed again in response until tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. She couldn’t wait for Weiss and Yang to meet. Once they both got over themselves they would get along like a house on fire.

The maid stepped out from behind the wooden screen. “The bath is ready for you, my Lady, Good Hunter.” She bowed at the waist. Weiss nodded to her silently, dismissing her.

“Thank-you very much.” Ruby smiled, hoping the woman would be able to tell from her eyes. Apparently she could, as she softened from her rigid posture and smiled back just a little bit, before she hefted her jug and left, closing the door behind her quietly.

“Would you like to go first, Miss Weiss? I know you’ve been wanting a bath.”

“I would like that very much. Thank-you.” Weiss set her empty plate on the table and grasped her new walking stick, making to stand.

“I’ll size that for you while you’re busy.” Ruby made to stand as well but froze for an instant as Weiss flinched at her sudden movement. She relaxed back on the bed instead, leaning back on her elbows as casually as she could. She would have to find a way to move without unsettling her jumpy companion. Right now she seemed to bother her with her every movement. Weiss started moving around to her bags smoothly, like she hadn’t just been startled. “Oh, and try to keep that leg of yours dry please. I have to change the bandages before going to work anyway, but I would rather make it as clean as possible.” Ruby craned her head back to watch Weiss until her hat almost fell off her head from being upside down.

Weiss rolled her eyes before bending down to root through her bags. “I am quite capable of doing such a thing myself. I am rather experienced in wound care.”

“Huh. That’s a weird thing for a noble Lady to be skilled at.” Ruby commented thoughtlessly, blinking.

Weiss froze again before looking at her hard. “I never claimed to be of noble standing.” She spoke harshly, her eyes cold. Ruby licked her lower lip anxiously.

She sat up slowly on the bed, using her abdomen rather than her arms before spinning herself around to look Weiss in the eye properly.

“My eyes are silver, Miss Weiss, but I am not blind. Everything about you screams that you are a woman of some standing and more than a little class.” Ruby huffed a short laugh and crossed her arms. “No matter how you may try to hide it, your every movement and word gives you away.”

Weiss stood back up straight, shifting her grip on the walking stick in a way that might have been subtle if she wasn’t talking with a Hunter. She was holding her stick as though it were a sword she was preparing to draw. Ruby’s blood began humming in her ears the way it did when she was waiting for combat, but this time it wasn’t because she was about to fight for her life. Her blood was humming from pure excitement and she could feel her limbs start to vibrate with the effort of holding herself still.

“So, what then? You wish to accompany me in hopes of some kind of reward when I get to my destination?” She asked coldly, mistrust in her every body line.

“What?” Ruby’s head rocked back as though Weiss had struck her. “No. We’ve already been over this remember? I want nothing from you but your safety, and even if someone did offer some kind of reward I wouldn’t accept it.”

“You- I don’t understand you!” Weiss rubbed at the bridge of her nose in frustration. “Have you no greed in you at all?! No lust for gold and wealth and the power it brings?!”

“Oh, I definitely have lust,” Ruby responded with a sudden husk. One that she cleared from her throat sharply. “Just not for gold. I have no need for it really. If I need it I work other jobs until I have enough for what I need, but the Hunter’s Mandate makes it so that I don’t need it very often.” She chanced a glance out the window; the sun was well set now. “Why don’t you go get into the bath and I’ll get the herbs ready for the poultice and cut your cane down, since you’re so determined to do it yourself.”

Weiss looked at her warily before nodding sharply.

“Cool!” Ruby hopped to her feet, choosing to ignore the flinch this time, as she walked over to her own bags and pulled out her medical bag and a small folding wood saw the size of her hand that she kept tucked away. She could use her sword, but she would rather not dull the blade even a little bit before work. She thumped her tools lightly onto the table and pulled out her herbs and another red vial, before setting the whole thing into her mortar and setting to work grinding it into a smooth paste. “Will you be needing any help with your bath, Miss Weiss?” She called over her shoulder as she worked.

“No. Thank-you.” Weiss responded stiffly. The slight sound of moving leather and the clink of Weiss’s own tools hitting the little wooden side-table of the bath met her ears.

“I will shorten your cane as soon as you are in the bath, Miss. Let me know when you are ready.”

Silence was the only response as the faint sounds of buckles opening and leather creaking accompanied the dry creaking of the pestle in her hand, until disturbed water sounded gently. This Lady seemed to go out of her way to make as little noise as possible.

“I… am ready.” Weiss spoke cautiously.

Ruby flipped her hat off her head and used it to cover her eyes before she stepped around the wooden screen. She stuck one hand out in the direction of the tub. “Cane please?”

“What-?” Weiss started, before the feeling of wood touched Ruby’s fingers. She grasped the cane and turned sharply back toward the table, taking a moment to put her hat back on, taking a few steps back to the table, starting to saw the end off to its new length.

“Why did you do that with your hat?” Weiss asked quietly, as water began to move around in the tub.

“I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” Ruby shrugged as she worked, even knowing that the noble woman couldn’t see her.

“You yourself pointed out that I cannot pass as a common woman.” Weiss paused for a moment as the water continued to move before she continued. “That would mean that I should be quite used to being seen in the bath, would it not?”

Ruby flushed dark, sweat starting to gather at the collar of her sweater. The end of the cane dropped off to the floor with a soft wooden conk.

“Unless it was actually yourself that was uncomfortable.” The noble woman’s voice never changed from its soft contemplative tone, but Ruby felt distinctly caught out.

“Okay-cane-is-done-you’re-welcome!” Ruby blurted, flinging the cane around the wooden screen and holding it in place until Weiss grabbed it. “Poultice-is-sitting-on-the-table-for-you-I-have-to-go-to-work-now-by!” Ruby flung herself toward the door, chased by the noble woman’s quiet laughter.

The door to the room closed carefully behind her, and Ruby leaned against it with a sigh. Miss Weiss was a clever lady. The back of Ruby’s neck felt hot still, and she could still faintly hear the tinkling laugh behind the door. She took another deep breath. She needed to settle herself. She needed to be in the right frame of mind for work.

She took another deep breath, holding it for a moment before she let it out with the first note of the Dirge of Calling, an old Hunter song for the calling of Grimm to the field of battle. It could take a while to show any effects so it was best to start it early.

As she went down the corridor toward the tavern below she heard brief movement in the other rooms freeze. It was interesting to know that the men drinking in the tavern were not the only members of their party, but she put the knowledge aside for now and focused on her song and adjusting her buckles and straps to make sure they were in the right places and positions for long-term fighting. She didn’t know how many Grimm were in the area after all. Better to be prepared.

She stepped down the stairs as lightly as she could, her presence given away only by the jingle of her adjusting buckles and the sound of her song with the occasional creak of the stairs. 

Excitement was starting to thrum in her veins.

The second she stepped foot into the tavern, the dirge still on her lips, all motion in the drinking room came to a halt. It was far more filled with people than it had been when she passed through the last time. All the miners and loggers home for the evening and toasting to the end of another day with a mug of beer. 

She paid them little heed, passing through the crowd as her hands went to her back, checking the placement of her rifle slung across her shoulders, and the folding stave nestled against the small of her back. Her fingers flit across her bandoleer of emergency bullets that was slung around her hips, counting to make sure the pouches were properly filled. One was empty. Her hand darted into a pocket on her leg and pulled a bullet free, but rather than pop it straight into the tiny pouch on her belt she chose to flip in between her fingers instead.

The Innkeeper caught her eye, standing in the midst of the silent crowd. He bowed to her stiffly and she touched her hat to him in a friendly gesture before she pushed the door open and stepped out into the shadowless dusk. As the door swung closed behind her, the crowd began again with a dull murmur instead of the crush of noise it had been when she was still upstairs. 

She kicked up the dry dust of the road with quick dance steps as the dirge came to an end and she switched to a morbid song of longing and loss from the end of the Colours War. When she made it within sight of the town gate the guardsmen shared a look between them and opened the gate for her without a word, closing in swiftly behind her. She tipped her hat as she passed, but didn’t break from her song or miss a step in her dance. The Calling was almost as much fun as the Hunt.

She stepped out into the middle of the road, halfway between the wall and the woods, in the open fields of untouched land from which the wood of the wall was harvested. She drew her blade with one hand and unslung her rifle with the other, idly checking it to see if it was loaded even though she was fully aware that it was.

And then she waited. 

Singing dark songs of the calling until the first set of glowing red eyes appeared in the depths of the woods. Mid-verse the song changed from one of mourning to one of war, a song of violence and vengeance that stirred the blood and made man and Grimm alike blood-hungry and stupid. The first of the Beowolves stepped from the shadows, frothing at the mouth already with want of violence. Ruby raised her gun as the beast raised its snout and howled. It got off only the first note of its song before it was silenced by thunder from her rifle. She wanted to Hunt the Grimm of the immediate area, not the entire mountain range.

A second and third Beowolf shot from the trees toward her and Ruby spun her rifle to cock up another shot, firing upon the closest as the pair closed the distance swiftly. As a head exploded from the second, the third made it within swiping range, and it slashed at her with its claws. She hopped back with a practiced step, and capitalised on her prey's overshoot. Darting back in with a powerful slash of her own that handily bisected the monstrosity. Her song never faltered. 

The blood on her sword dried near instantly in the night air, dissolving on the wind in a black mist as the next few eyes appeared in the wood. Ruby grinned. 

This night might run a bit long, but time meant nothing to the thrill of the Hunt.

Her rifle cracked like thunder in her hands, her blade like a whip of lightning, scattering blood to the winds like rose petals, as monstrous wolf after monstrous wolf died at her feet.

A raw-throated bellow split the night.

A massive beast, its bone white armor catching in the scattered moonlight and throwing its abnormally long fangs into sharp relief. It’s vaguely human shape was one that had thrown mankind into terror when it first appeared generations ago. The monster looked as though someone had taken a man and made him strong beyond what his frame could support, shortening his legs in favor of making his arms that much more powerful to the point where it could barely stand upright and instead leaned forward onto its knuckles. Hunters from deep in the mountains of Mistral called its shape animal a ‘gorilla’. 

To the Hunters at large however, it was simply known only as a Beringel. Rare and incredibly dangerous, with the strength to rip apart buildings as well as the people inside them.

Most of the few remaining Beowolves scattered into the woods at the appearance of the stronger beast. Those that did not, dared not to come within reach of it, bar one, and Ruby swiftly learned why as the Beringel hollered again and grabbed it around the head, flinging it at her bodily.

Ruby ducked under its arc, slashing a mortal wound into its side such that it began to dissipate before even fully hitting the ground. She fired a reflex shot as she straightened back up, and watched in something approaching glee as the bullet ricocheted off its armored hide. It caught a Beowolf in the underside of its jaw, blowing it off in an explosion of gore. Her song broke off for the first time in this hunt as she laughed, spinning her rifle and chambering another round.

She had never Hunt a Beringel before! This was exciting!

The few remaining Beowolves scattered into the trees, and she sighed for a moment before she allowed the song to sweep her up once more. She would have to make sure she cleared out their nests before she moved on from this village, but she put the thought from her mind. She slammed her blade back into the end of the stave folded up on her back with a grin that she sang though. The mechanisms caught and her blade and stave unfolded into a beautiful and deadly battle scythe that she quickly swung around to hold in both hands.

The True Hunt was about to begin.

———

Weiss wrapped the final loop of bandage around her leg as sparingly as she could. She had seen what the good Hunter considered an appropriate amount of medical supplies and she would be certain to stock them up more appropriately when they made to leave. They may have been down one fewer horse then was customary for long journeys, but she would carry the extra herself if she had too.

It was the least she could do.

It was the only thing she could do.

A gentle knock sounded at the door, interrupting the increasingly dark path her thoughts were used to traveling down. She carefully rose from the bed, using her new walking cane to carefully pull herself from the uncomfortable mattress. The cane wasn’t the most delicately crafted instrument, but it was clearly created with both skill and an eye for strength, if not for delicate sensibilities.

It was rather like the good Hunter herself, in that way.

The knock sounded again at the door, just as gentle and unobtrusive as before. She knew it wasn’t the Hunter, who had left a little less than half an hour ago. For one, she knocked the way she talked, with a barely restrained energy waiting to erupt into motion at the slightest invitation. For another, no matter how skilled she might be, there was no way for a single woman to kill all the Grimm plaguing this area in under an hour. It was a logical and logistical impossibility.

“My Lady? Are you awake?”

It was the Innkeeper.

Weiss walked up to the side of the door, standing to the side with the cane gripped in hand. “I am. Is there something you require of me, good Innkeep?” 

“Not at all, My Lady. I only wondered if you had yet had the opportunity to watch your companion dance?” The Innkeeper shifted behind the door and sighed quietly. “It is quite a sight, and not one that is soon forgotten.”

“Dance?” Weiss asked back, feeling her brow wrinkle in confusion before she smoothed any emotion from her face. Even though he could not see her, that was no excuse to let her hard won training lapse.

“It’s what they call it, when they go out on the hunt.” She heard the Innkeeper shift behind the door. “I would take you to the roof, if my Lady is interested in knowing better the company she keeps.”

Weiss contemplated the suggestion, weighing the merits of what she might learn against the risks of going somewhere with a man she didn’t know. Eventually she shrugged, her unoccupied hand coming up and unlocking the door. What could this man do that she hadn’t been through before? She popped the door open and found the Innkeeper standing in his usual nervous position, wringing his hands but with a light smile on his face. He gestured back toward the main stairs down into the tavern and she carefully stepped out of the room, locking the door behind her. He led her down the hall and turned off into a room before he hit the main stairs. She raised an eyebrow at him and he shrugged with a gentle smile.

“The only way to access the roof is through my own personal room. I find it safer for the guests that way.” He hopped across the small but immaculately tidy room and opened a door set into the side wall. He pulled out a heavy keyring and flipped through the ring rapidly before settling on a heavy brass key with a bird carved into the handle. He shoved the key into the lock and turned it with a sharp click, pulling the door aside with a sloppy but well meaning bow in her direction. She nodded and began climbing narrow stairs, the Innkeeper following behind at a polite distance.

“I seem to recall some mention of you and the good Hunter having met before?” Weiss asked politely, feigning disinterest even though she was genuinely curious in the answer.

“Ah- well, yes and no.” He hummed as they climbed. “We never truly met properly, though she did save my life.” The stairs at the top ended in another door, this one not locked as Weiss discovered when she tried the handle. Weiss made a polite questioning sound, encouraging the Innkeeper to continue as they stepped out on the flattened section at the peak of the Inn’s roof. It was high in the air, the tallest building in the village, bar one other on the far side of town, and looked out over the walls and into the forest beyond. 

Out in the darkness, standing all alone, stood the silhouette of the Hunter. The wind carried traces of the Hunter’s voice, lifted in melancholic song.

“It was about… not quite twelve years ago, now.” The Innkeeper stepped up beside her, an eager look on his face as he watched the figure in the darkness intently. “I was just a lad at the time, but The Rose Hunter was younger still. Barely more than a child. If memory still serves she looked about ten and swinging around a weapon more than twice her size.” He chuckled, shaking his head with a look of naked admiration plastered across his face. There was movement in the far away woods.

“So long ago.” Weiss glanced at him before looking away towards the Hunter. The cadence of her song had changed abruptly, and shots were cracking through the night. “How are you certain it was the same Hunter?”

“No two living Hunters may carry the same emblem.” The Innkeeper breathed, enraptured as the Hunter in the distance moved.

The enormous blade that Weiss had seen before gripped in her hand, flicking out with the speed of a whip as the creatures of Grimm attempted to cut her down. “I remember the way the silver rose on her lapel shone in the sunlight. The way her eyes did the same. I have never before seen eyes of silver, or since. The Rose is the only one.”

A raw-throated bellow split the night even more than the cracks from the Hunter’s gun. Weiss flinched and looked at the Innkeeper, who began trembling. A monstrous form emerged from the woods, indistinct from the distance and the lack of light. 

The massive new form glared with glowing red eyes barely seen with the distance and grabbed one of its smaller fellows, flinging it at the Hunter bodily. It was cut down long before it could even touch the ground.

“The Rose and the Dragon together saved my village, and the Rose saved me personally, as the Dragon saved my master.” He turned his head toward her even as he refused to look away from the Hunter in the woods. The Hunter did… something that Weiss was unable to determine with the distance, and suddenly the other woman was holding an enormous scythe, as wicked looking as the face of death itself. 

The Hunter spun the scythe with fluid ease before darting forward and swinging it with the speed of a switch-whip. The monstrous shape reacted with more speed then any of its fellows had yet displayed and the Hunter was swatted away, like a bothersome gnat, knocking her flat into the dirt several lengths away.

Weiss gasped involuntarily, hand coming up to press against her mouth. 

As if in defiance of Weiss’s worry, the Hunter popped back to her feet, springing over backwards off her hands and landing with a relaxed looking ease, the scythe swinging up to land across her shoulders. The beast bellowed once again, flinging another object in her direction that the Hunter handily danced out of the way of. The object hit the ground with a large spray of earth and a distinctive sharp crack.

“Is it- Is the Grimm throwing rocks?” Weiss breathed with disbelief. She was mildly offended at the thought of a creature of Grimm using any kind of weapon, even if it was just a rock, though she wasn’t quite certain why.

“It must be one with hands?” The Innkeeper voiced with concern. “At least it's not a leviathan.”

———

Why couldn’t it have been a leviathan? Ruby thought to herself with an incensed huff as the Beringal ripped an old stump from the earth and charged her with stump upraised.

She darted in under its reach as it slammed the dirt where she had been less than a blink ago, slashing across its stomach with her scythe. It pierced the skin, carving the deepest gash she had yet landed on the beast, but it was still little more than a scratch. Even still the beast screamed and swung at her with a vicious elbow, which she hurriedly back-stepped out of the way of. She hadn’t spent her entire life sparring with Yang just to get caught by an uncoordinated elbow. Yang would just rip all the creatures of Grimm apart her bare hands if that had been at all a viable option.

Ruby rolled her eyes at her absent sister, ducking under another hasty swing from the charging beast. She darted back in behind it, taking the opportunity afforded to her to slash out the tendons in one of its small legs, digging through the thick flesh with the tip of her blade. The beast staggered and fell to its malformed knees, and Ruby leapt into the air.

She came down swift and hard, swinging her blade in a deadly arc that neatly beheaded the Beringal. The blade of her scythe jarred grisly vibrations up into her arms before it emerged out the other side of the beast's thick neck. The body shuddered, blood spraying from the stump of its neck into the night air like a morbid fountain. 

Ruby sighed, twirling her scythe and flinging the blood on her blade into the air where it dispersed with the rest, the body of the beast already dissolving.

The Beringal was an interesting Hunt, to be sure, but aside from being able to think of using things to bash her with, it didn’t seem terribly difficult. Almost insultingly easy in fact, for how the Hunters of the Haven Guild talked about them. She had been expecting something… more. She split her weapon back into its blade and put the folding stave on her back.

A howl in the distance split the night.

Ruby raised her head, sniffing at the air and finding its direction. Another howl sounded, farther out then the first. They were moving off.

“Well, I guess we’re done tonight then.” Ruby sighed. She couldn’t decide if she was relieved or not. On the one hand, she hadn’t gotten as much sleep the night before as she probably should have which left her unusually tired, but on the other hand the adrenaline from the Hunt could keep her going for days if she needed to.

Nothing for it tonight though. She could probably do with some extra sleep.

She began the soothing songs of the Hunts end, song of rest and sleep and the wind in the trees as she turned back toward the town, idly refilling the shots in the rifle as she went and stepping carefully across the broken earth. There were a lot of ruined tracts of meadow grass from where all the boulders had landed and carved out the earth itself in a gaping wound. She really hoped the village didn’t use this land for anything important. At least it wasn’t farmland, being already far too filled with stones to be useful for that.

A third howl, barely discernible through the distance and the wind triggered a yawn.

A bath would be nice.

———

By the time she made it back to the room, her songs were little more than a quiet hum filling the empty spaces in the air as she stood in front of the door to her shared room. She lifted a fist and thumped it against the solid wood as gently as she could while ensuring it would still be heard, waiting in the mostly silent night to the rustles behind the other doors. The door popped open almost as soon as the sound faded, revealing a still very awake Miss Weiss behind it.

“Why are you still awake?” Ruby asked before she could think better of it.

“How else were you planning to get back into the room? Climb through the window?” Weiss raised her scarred eyebrow to a derisive angle. Ruby laughed, light and airy.

“Oh I haven’t had to climb through a window in years.” She waved a hand dismissively and snorted as she tried to stop her laughter. 

Weiss started to step out of the way of the door for her but stopped abruptly, squinting up into her face with an abruptly distrustful look.

“What?” Ruby squeezed past her into the room as carefully as she could, pulling off her coat as she went and hanging it on the peg next to the door.

“Have you been doing drugs, good Hunter?” Weiss asked with careful disdain.

Ruby froze in disbelief, in the process of removing one of her weapons belts. “I beg your pardon?” Ruby asked, shocked.

“The pupils of your eyes are quite blown, Hunter. To a rather startling degree, in fact.” Weiss gripped her walking stick with a careful hand, as suspicious as she had ever been.

“Oh. Is that all?” Ruby pulled her hat off and hung it on the back of her chair, running a hand through her short hair before moving closer to the noble woman, moving as calmly as she could. 

Weiss tensed next to the bed, like a cat about to lunge for safety. “Look, Miss Weiss. Look at my eyes.” She leaned closer to the pale woman to give her a clearer view. “This happens sometimes when we Hunters are exposed to the blood of the Grimm for an extended period of time. I may have taken no drugs, but the Grimm blood can make us a bit… drunk shall we say?” Ruby grinned under her mask as the glacial blue eyes flicked between her own. 

“It makes us more impulsive, more prone to rash decisions, and can dull our pain. It can do this in non-hunters also, as well as being toxic, as a way to make it easier to kill them. Which is probably its intent, but for Hunters, and those with Hunters blood, it doesn’t kill. It only inconveniences.” Ruby leaned forward slightly farther, looking intently into the shorter woman's icy pools.

The sound of her head thumping against the wooden wall drew her attention for a moment, and Ruby was confused. She thought they were in the middle of the room, so when did they get here? But then Weiss blinked again and the motion distracted her once more. Even her brows and eyelashes were white.

“You… have the most beautiful eyes.” Ruby breathed, leaning on the wall above her companion to get a better angle with the candlelight. 

Weiss swallowed roughly, the soft flesh of her throat drawing Ruby’s attention for an instant before she was drawn back to the elegant woman's riveting eyes, but this time she noticed something different. The woman’s pupils had narrowed to pinpricks, her breathing rapid and shallow as though she was trying to get as much air as possible without drawing attention to herself. 

She was terrifying the poor woman. 

A sick pit formed in Ruby’s stomach, disgust with herself and guilt for her actions warring within her for most intense. Ruby licked her suddenly dry lips and carefully pulled away from the wall to turn away.

“Of course, you certainly knew that already. You probably hear that all the time, from the people you meet.” Ruby feigned nonchalance, shrugging and going back to removing her weapons belts, hanging them on the chair with her hat. “I’m going to wash before I sleep. You should sleep as well, Miss Weiss. You need to rest that leg so it heals properly.” 

She heard the barest hint of movement behind her and refused to look. She had badly scared the poor woman already, she would do her at least enough courtesy to let her recover without an audience.

“And where will you be sleeping, then?” Weiss asked with a cold, disaffected tone, as though nothing had happened.

“On the hearth rug?” Ruby responded, confused. Did the lady think she would sleep in the chair again? She could probably do that if she needed to, but she had never found sleeping upright terribly comfortable or beneficial unless she needed to be able to wake at a moment's notice.

“The hearth rug is filthy.” Weiss responded dryly, and Ruby immediately forgot her own goals to carefully glanced at her over her shoulder as she loosened another belt. The woman was slowly relaxing, but had yet to leave her spot on the wall.

“It's cleaner than the dirt.” Ruby shrugged. “And it's softer then the floor which is all I really need. Plus the fire is warm!” She flapped a hand and the woman and went back to unbuckling. “Go to sleep, Miss Weiss. I’ll be as quiet as can be and see about having breakfast sent up to you in the morning.”

Ruby stepped behind the wooden screen and allowed her shirt and pants to drop to the floor with a jingling thump before she finally removed her mask. She placed it carefully on the pile of leather and cloth, where the manic grin would stay waiting for her until she needed it again.

“You do know that the water has gone cold.” The noble woman stated, her tone still cold as she neither asked the question nor awaited a response, the sounds of the sheets being turned down following her words.

“I’m sure it won't be that bad…” Ruby responded dismissively before hopping into the half-full tub.

And promptly suppressing a shriek of surprise. The water was far colder then the proximity to the fire would suggest. She heard a sharp exhale from her companion that sounded like the beginnings of a laugh.

“Yeah, yeah. Alright, I deserve that.” Ruby quietly laughed at herself for doubting the woman and hurried through her bath as quickly and quietly as she could. Weiss didn’t make another sound from the other side of the screen.

She crept out from behind the wooden barrier once she was finished, squinting in the gloom to detect whether or not her companion was asleep yet before deciding that she probably was and retrieving clean clothing from her bags. Or, as close to clean as she currently had. Perhaps one of her tasks in the morning would be to see if she could find a person in town willing to help her by washing her clothing in exchange for some task or other.

She carefully retied the knot in her mask and lay her long body on the hearth rug as best she could given its size, and sighed in contentment. It was a very nice rug, she mused as she felt her spine and joints ease and pop after the nights hunt. She might be sore in the morning from the one hit she took from the Beringal, but hey, she had never fought one before. It was a learning experience. 

And what she learned was not to let it hit her again because it would hurt. 

She snorted at the obvious statement and rolled so that the banked fire could heat her back as she fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so begins the true wait between chapters.
> 
> This was the last one I had in reserve and I wasn't going to post before 4 is done but... I got excited ^^;
> 
> Hopefully you all enjoy! Let me know as always if you need a tag added and overall what you think.
> 
> Comments make the writing machine go brrrr


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